Project Director: Michael J. Polito

Funding Organization: National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine: Gulf Research Program

Funding Cycles: Healthy Ecosystems 4

Description: Louisiana salt marshes provide nearly 1.2 billion pounds of seafood each year, and they remain a popular destination for sport fishing. The distribution and abundance of fish are typically synchronized with freshwater inflow patterns to the marshes. However, it remains unclear whether human activities and natural processes may affect those patterns – and the predictability of fishing forecasts. This project seeks to understand the effects of freshwater inputs into salt marsh ecosystems; and how those activities affect behaviors and livelihoods of the recreational fishing industry. To date, studies focusing on recreational fishing in salt marshes have only considered the effects of human activities on salt marshes. By contrast, this project will assess how human activities and natural processes interact, by combining empirical knowledge, fish distribution and abundance data, and environmental parameters. Model outputs from this project will help predict how ecological and socioeconomic changes affect livelihoods of recreational fishing communities.