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IRL TechCon, Living Dock Deploy and National Estuaries Day Celebration

 

 

Technical Conference on Coastal Water Quality (TechCon2017)
“from Science to Solutions”

Friday, September 29, 2017 from 8 am–9 pm
on the Florida Tech Campus
( Denarius Student Center, Hartley Room) 

The Indian River Lagoon Research Institute at Florida Institute of Technology Announces its Third Technical Conference on water quality solutions

The IRLRI TechCon2017 committee seeks Engineers, Scientists, Contractors, and Students who are actively working and researching in the field of coastal water quality remediation and restoration to submit an abstract for a presentation. The conference is focused on adapting and applying science to guide management decisions and develop solutions aimed at improving coastal water quality.

More info on TechCon

Living Dock

Benthic organisms such as oysters, sponges, barnacles and tunicates are filter feeders, which have the potential to significantly improve local water quality and provide habitat and food for crabs and fish. The IRLRI and local community groups have been working together to create Living Docks, which promote the growth of filter feeders at private and public locations along the Indian River Lagoon. This is done by attaching oyster wraps and bags to docks. This method is cheap, simple, and requires minor long-term maintenance. After one year of immersion, previous Living Docks had healthy populations of barnacles, sponges, algae, bryozoans, and tunicates. Live oysters were also found in abundance. With the filtration rates for oysters being 50 gallons per day per oyster (Crasstrostrica virginica) a community with healthy Living Docks can potentially filter 57000 gallons of water per day or about 21 million gallons (approx.. 80,000 cubic meters) per year per dock (of 37 pilings with an average of 32 oysters per piling). This volume of water is the equivalent to the volume of water needed to fill 420,000 bathtubs!

Terri Wright held the position of General Manager at WFIT from 1998-2023.