ALBERT

Description: The structures along a 12 km section of the shoreline of Cape Cod, Mass., were evaluated for condition and effectiveness at protecting the coast. Structures in the area include groins, jetties, revetments, and seawalls; each has been located, photographed and described. The region has been subject to erosion in recent years, including the loss of a 1 km section of barrier spit. The role of shoreline structures in controlling or enhancing the erosion was examined as part of a larger study of coastal processes in the area. The shoreline structures serve two primary functions: beach enhancement and protection of the bluffs from erosion. The structures• effects on bluffs and beaches in their immediate vicinity (approximately lOOm along the coastline to the north and south of the structure) are detailed in this report. Seawalls generally protect the cliffs into which they are built without enhancing erosion of surrounding bluffs, though the bluffs are protected at the expense of the beaches in the central area (Meadow Point). Large scale changes in beach configuration are not primarily caused by local, small-scale structures, but rather by a more regional paucity of sand input into the system. This scarcity is caused in part by large jetties controlling inlet flows to Waquoit Bay, which impedes free transport of sand into the area.

Description: Funding was provided through a Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Program Community Assistance Grant by the Town of Mashpee and through NOAA, Office of Sea Grant under Grant NA80AA-D-00077 (RB-40).

Description: Despite an absence of freshwater exploitation, the adult salmon run in the Matamek River, Quebec, declined during 1975-1980 to 〈23% of the level thought to occur there prior to 1967. Returns in 1979 and 1980 of adults tagged as smolts were 1.0% and 0.9%, respectively. Numbers of emigrating smolts and their corresponding adult returns are not significantly correlated, although we observed a trend towards more salmon (2 sea year fish) returning with larger numbers of migrating smolts. Since 1967 there is noted a decrease in the age at which returning adults smolted and females appear to now constitute a larger percentage of returning grilse and salmon. These, and other changes in life history characteristics, appear to be caused solely by commercial exploitation.

Description: Prepared by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Department of Recreation, Fish and Game of the Province of Quebec.

Description: This report represents a first step at considering the potential for the use of market-based incentives to aid in the resolution of fishery bycatch problems. Market-based incentives have several advantages over more traditional command-and-control approaches, including cost-effective allocations of environmental controls; incentives for firms to seek technological solutions; flexibility; returns to the public for the use of its resources; and lower administrative costs in some cases. Notwithstanding these advantages and with several notable exceptions, market-based incentives are almost never employed in the management of fishery bycatch problems. There may be several reasons why this is the case, including significant distributional effects, high costs of monitoring and enforcement, difficulties in educating consumers about product attributes, administrative and transactions costs, or merely oversight. We consider this report to be an "advanced outline" of the issues surrounding the consideration of market-based incentives. We begin first by developing in Section 2 a definition of bycatch, including a "typology" of bycatch types. Next, we compile available public information on bycatch in U.S. fisheries, as defined by target species, location, and gear type (Section 3 and Appendix 1). We then review, in Section 4, two potentially relevant strands of literature, the economic theory of multispecies fisheries and studies from other social sciences of how small-scale fisheries deal with problems of bycatch. In Section 5, we describe, in general, the kinds of market-based policy instruments that may be of use in managing bycatch problems. Following this evaluation, we identify and discuss, as case studies; three priority fisheries: th~ northeastern groundfish fishery; the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery; and the eastern tropical Pacific yellowfin tuna fishery (Section 6). Finally, in Section 7, we outline approaches to identifying appropriate policy instruments, including a qualitative comparison of market-based approaches, an examination of the effect of specific types of uncertainty on the choice between taxes and ITQs, and the development of a "proposal" for a bycatch management "policy package." This section concludes with a proposal for a set of priority market-based approaches to bycatch management in the three cases discussed in Section 6.

Description: NOAA Contract No. 50-DGNF-5-00172

Description: Various aspects of sediment transport in and around natural, unstructured tidal inlets were investigated over the two year period of study. Concentrating on two tidal inlets (Nauset Inlet and Popponesset Inlet, Cape Cod, MA), and combining detailed field observations with numerical model studies of tidal flows in inlet/estuarine environments, several aspects of tidal inlet behavior have been clarified. In addition, field work has resulted in a number of technical publications of general utility to a wide spectrum of coastal research interest. Primary scientific items addressed in this study include: 1) diagnostic numerical model of generation and propagation of tidal non-liniarities in shallow estuarine channels; 2) effects of flow curvature on tidal inlet sediment transport; 3) definition of mechanisms by which tidal inlets migrate in a direction opposite to the net littoral drift direction; 4) hypothesis of a mechanism for rapid barrier spit growth in locations with low rates of littoral transport; 5) clarification of long-term patterns of sea-level rise in the United States to assess its role in tidal inlet/esturarine evolution; 6) historical descriptions of massive inlet migration at two study inlets as supporting evidence for the inlet modeling studies. Technical information generated by the study includes a description of a low-cost, reliable method to join nearshore electrical cables; description and intercomparison of instrumentation and analysis routines for estimating directional spectral parameters from wave gage data; and development of a field system and laboratory analysis package for preparing accurate bathymetric charts in shallow, nearshore regions, using microwave navigation and precision echo-sounding.

Description: Funding was provided by the U.S. Army Research Office under Grant DAAG 29-81-K-0004 and the Department of Commerce, NOAA Office of Sea Grant under Grants NA79AA-D-00102 and NA80AA-D-00077.