Application of a comprehensive modeling strategy for the management of net-pen aquaculture waste transport

An efficient mathematical modeling package called Aquaculture Waste Transport Simulator (AWATS) provides first-order estimates of the physical dispersion of finfish aquaculture wastes for regulatory purposes. The modeling strategy entails the utilization of a vertically averaged, two-dimensional flow model to produce flow-field information. This information is input to a particle-tracking waste transport model to simulate the resulting transport of wastes. Since earlier studies have shown that the transport modeling results are sensitive to the threshold shear stress at which settled fish-pen wastes are resuspended, fieldwork was conducted to improve the parameterization of erodibility in the transport model. Application of AWATS to aquaculture sites in coastal Maine (selected by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection) shows that it is a convenient tool in the regulatory process. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.