Dynamics of mussel aquaculture in the oceanographic and economic context of southern Chile

• Project in Chile
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• Project Proposal:

  -To identify the main stakeholders of the mussel aquaculture industry in Los Lagos. Conduct a literature review of the existing studies on climate change and aquaculture in Chile and around the world. Interview stakeholders. Based on interviews outline the private and public sector perception of and support for projects that assist mussel farmers in climate change scenarios.

  -Through interviews and literature review, identify the main vulnerabilities of the sector to climate-change. Evaluate the correlation between industry and academia concerns and the level of government engagement with these problems

  -To evaluate to what extent the industry is prepared for future and current climate scenarios that limit production potential. Lay out areas that should be expanded upon to bring about industry sustainability. Make recommendations for future management.

  So far, I have accomplished goals 1 and 2. I spent the first few months making contacts with mussel growers, research institutes, government workers, and suppliers of industry services. After making these connections I interviewed two to three people from each sector to gain an understanding of their principle concerns and evaluation of the industry in relation to future growth and climate change.

  My next step is to send questionnaires to the people I interviewed to quantify these feelings and perceptions. The questionnaire will be developed based on what I heard in preliminary interviews and in collaboration with the team of scientists working on this aquaculture study.

  I also have read and summarized into a chart the literature relevant to this mussel aquaculture and climate change project. These findings will be used to write the introduction of our paper.

  I am now working on the objective that relates to evaluating the correlation between industry and academia concerns and the level of government engagement. This will be evaluated through funded projects, consistency of projects, dispersion of funds, and main research areas that are funded.

• Proposal:

   

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