Mississippi-Alabama Bays and Bayous Symposium Proceedings October 28-29, 2008 Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center Biloxi, Mississippi MASGP-08-037 Mississippi-Alabama Bays & Bayous Symposium Sponsors Without these organizations, this symposium would not be possible. Sm~t Chevron Mississippi-Alabama Pascagoula Refinery .-!!.~ /~ (~~§ WIIJ' ~'" NOAA Coastal Services Center LINKING PEOPLE, INFORMATION,AND TECHNOLOGY NGI Nmam!nGIluIwiuUVJIl ... 'M~"~I "' N~ DLKERT ~~6tR8NME ~ THE \SSOCIATES, INC. 'TAL FORUM Acknowledgments A symposium of this nature cannot succeed without the efforts and cooperation of a great number of individuals and their employers. We thank all presenters who submitted abstracts and made oral or poster presentations. This cutting-edge information will be of value to resource managers, policy makers, and citizens. Planning and oversight for the symposium was provided by the symposium Steering Committee. We deeply appreciate the members’ time and dedication to the final product. Symposium Steering Committee: • Dave Burrage – MSU Coastal Research & Extension Center and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Extension Program • Chris Boyd – MSU Coastal Research & Extension Center and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Extension Program • John Bowie – The Gulf of Mexico Program • Mike Carron – Northern Gulf Institute • Todd Davison – NOAA Gulf Coast Services Center • John Dindo – Dauphin Island Sea Lab • Martha Duvall – Gulf Coast Research Lab, The University of Southern Mississippi • Jean Ellis – NASA Stennis Space Center • Bill Hawkins – Gulf Coast Research Lab, The University of Southern Mississippi • Tom Herder – Mobile Bay National Estuary Program • Sharon Hodge – Northern Gulf Institute • Amy King – ADCNR State Lands Division, Coastal Section • John Mareska – Alabama Marine Resources Division • Joanne McDonough – Alabama Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau and Auburn University Marine Extension Research Center • Dave Ruple – Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve • Tina Sanchez – NOAA Gulf Coast Services Center • Michael Shelton – Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve • Stephanie Showalter – Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program • Tina Shumate – Mississippi Department of Marine Resources • Jody Thompson – Auburn University Marine Extension Research Center and Mississippi- Alabama Sea Grant Extension Program • Bill Walker – Mississippi Department of Marine Resources • Sharon Walker – The University of Southern Mississippi and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium Special thanks to the following Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium employees who served on the Symposium Steering Committee and worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this event a success. They are: Kay Bruening, Devaney Cheramie, John Grigsby, Loretta Leist, Melissa Schneider, Steve Sempier, and Tracie Sempier. Finally, we wish to thank the sponsors. Without these organizations, this symposium would not be possible. LaDon Swann, Director Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center Preface This meeting began in 1979 and was titled Alabama’s Bays, Bayous and Beaches Symposium. In 1987, the symposium sought to update the findings of the 1979 symposium and widened the scope of papers to include the economic importance of coastal waters, educations programs and habitat restoration. The 1995 symposium continued the tradition of scientific management reports while reaching out to local industry and governments. Water quality, watershed management, government cooperation and citizen involvement, government cooperation and citizen involvement were key topics addressed by a variety of papers. The stage was set for a new spirit of cooperation between Baldwin and Mobile counties in managing Alabama’s coastal waters. Shortly after the symposium, Mobile Bay was approved for inclusion in the National Estuarine Program. In 2006 it was decided that the meeting would be held every two years, rotating between Alabama and Mississippi, with the name rotating with each state (Alabama- Mississippi Bays & Bayous Symposium and Mississippi-Alabama Bays & Bayous Symposium). The 2006 meeting was held at the Mobile Convention Center in Mobile, AL, and drew more than 300 participants. There were 59 oral presentations and 37 poster presentations during the two concurrent sessions over the two-day period. Topics included water quality; living resources; habitat management; and natural hazards and coastal development. We are pleased to host the 2008 Symposium at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi, MS. The two-day event will include three concurrent sessions with 91 oral presentations and 60 poster presentations. Topics will include coastal community action and stewardship; extension, outreach and education; natural hazards resiliency and the ocean’s role in climate; water resources: supply and quality; living estuarine resources; and habitat management and restoration. We hope you find the symposium interesting, educational and engaging and that you look forward to the next one in Alabama in 2010. Keynote Speaker Biographies Dr. Virginia Burkett Chief Scientist for Global Change Research U.S. Geological Survey Dr. Virginia Burkett is the Chief Scientist for Global Change Research at the U.S. Geological Survey. She was formerly Chief of the Forest Ecology Branch at the National Wetlands Research Center and Associate Regional Chief Biologist for the USGS Central Region. Dr. Burkett has served as Director of the Louisiana Coastal Zone Management Program, Director of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and Assistant Director of the Louisiana Geological Survey. She has published extensively on the topics of global change and low-lying coastal zones. She was a Lead Author on the United Nation's IPCC Third and Fourth Assessment Reports (2001 and 2007) and an IPCC Technical Paper on Water (2007). She coordinated both the Coastal and Southeast synthesis chapters of the U.S. National Assessment of climate change and its impacts. During her career Dr. Burkett has been appointed to over 40 Commissions, Committees, Science Panels and Boards, and received a Nobel Prize in 2007 for work with the IPCC. Dr. Steven Murawski Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor for NOAA Fisheries Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Dr. Steven Murawski is the Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor for NOAA Fisheries Service, a position he has held since May of 2005. In addition to these duties, he was selected to be the NOAA Ecosystem Goal Team Lead in January 2006. As Goal Team Lead, Dr. Murawski is responsible for out-year strategic planning and budget development for all of NOAA’s ecosystem activities which amount to $1.2 billion in 2008. Currently, Dr. Murawski works to move forward ecosystem approaches to management both at NOAA and in conjunction with other federal agencies and international bodies. Prior to this, he was the Director of the NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology. Dr. Murawski has considerable experience in the field of applied fisheries biology and quantitative fishery science and served as Chief Stock Assessment Scientist for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts (1990–2004). His research background is in fisheries biology, population dynamics and stock assessment. He has published over 150 reports, articles and other documents, appearing several notable journals. During his career, Dr. Murawski has been a key representative on several committees and councils. His current roles include official U.S. delegate to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), NOAA representative to the White House interagency Joint Sub-Committee on Science and Technology (JSOST), and member on the Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (GLOBEC) Program Steering Committee. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, in 1984. Lunch Speaker Biographies Dr. Bill Walker Executive Director Mississippi Department of Marine resources Dr. Bill Walker is the Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources in Biloxi, MS. His research and teaching interests include: Fate and Effects of Pesticides/Toxins in Natural Environments; Bioassay Evaluations (Bioaccumulation, Food Chain Transfer, Sub-lethal Effects); and Toxic/Carcinogenic Responses in Small Fish Species. Dr. Walker’s grant history includes about $7.1 million over his career. Major funding agencies include U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Toxicology Program, National Biological Service, Department of the Army (DOD), National Cancer Institute (NIH), and private industry. He has over 40 peer-reviewed articles and over 100 national and regional presentations. Dr. Walker earned his B.S. in Botany/Microbiology from Southeastern Louisiana University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Soil Microbiology/Biochemistry from Mississippi State University. Mr. Stephen Sempier Deputy Director Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium Steve Sempier is Deputy Director at the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium and also serves as Sea Grant’s Gulf of Mexico Regional Research Planning Coordinator. He is working with federal and state agencies, universities, and NGOs to develop a Gulf-wide plan that identifies and addresses regional research priorities and information needs. The four Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant College programs are leading this effort, and Steve works closes with each of these programs. Steve has over ten years of professional marine science, aquaculture/fisheries, and teaching experience. Recent university employment includes working on a USDA aquaculture risk management project and working on a USAID program devoted to increasing food security in developing nations. He earned his B.S. in Marine Science/Biology at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida and an M.S. in Marine Resource Management/Fisheries Science at Oregon State University. How to Use the Bays and Bayous CD-ROM You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the abstracts and most other documents on this CD. Acrobat Reader version 9.0 for Windows XP is provided on this CD for your convenience. A Macintosh version is also provided on the CD. Both versions are located in the folder called Reader. Installing Adobe Acrobat Reader for Windows (PC) Open the AdbeRdr90_en_us file on this CD. Follow the onscreen instruction. You will have to restart your computer to complete the installation. Installing Adobe Acrobat Reader for Mac Open the AdbeRdr812_en_US_i386.dmg file. Follow instruction prompts to install the program. Using the Table of Contents file The abstracts for all presentations given at the 2008 Mississippi-Alabama Bays and Bayous Symposium are included on this CD. They are categorized by session topic: Coastal Community Action and Stewardship; Extension, Outreach and Education; Habitat Management and Restoration; Living Estuarine Resources; Natural Hazards Resiliency and the Ocean's Role in Climate; and Water Resources: Supply and Quality. Oral and poster abstracts are listed in alphabetical order by title within each session. To view an abstract, find it on the Table of Contents and click on the title. A new window will open for every abstract selected. Using keyword searches To perform keyword searches, open the "Search Index" file on this disk. Enter one or more key words in the search box and then click search. A search window will display a list of documents that include your search criteria. To open a document, click the title.