Science and technology needs for marine fishery habitat restoration

Habitat restoration is the re-establishment of functional attributes of an ecological community or ecosystem to the level of the system that existed prior to a discrete impact or degradation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration´s (NOAA) Restoration Center (RC) is responsible for restoration of living marine resources (LMR) and their habitats primarily through litigation-related damage settlement monies resulting from oil spills and other contaminant releases, and their community-based partnership funding program. Objectives of the RC are to advance the relevant interdisciplinary sciences and improve and transfer technology in the industry to increase marine habitat restoration success. Restoration generally involves an inter-related series of tasks including resource impact assessment, pre-restoration mapping and monitoring, restoration alternatives analysis, preliminary and final restoration design, regulatory permitting, project construction, post-construction monitoring and success evaluation, and project modification, as needed. The RC is routinely involved in restoration projects which are listed. The focus of this presentation is to identify and discuss current technical issues affecting the cost-effectiveness, timeliness, and degree of success of marine restoration. The RC is both providing suggestions on advancing the relevant sciences and technology, and seeking input from industry, academia, and other governmental agencies to better achieve successful restoration projects. These science and technology advances are also listed