ObjectiveOyster reefs across North America have declined precipitously over the past 140 years. In Washington State, Olympia oyster Ostrea lurida reefs historically provided water filtration and nearshore structural habitat for fishes and invertebrates, but this species is now functionally extinct across its historical range. In place of these naturally occurring reefs, shellfish farms consisting mainly of nonnative Pacific oysters Magallana gigas now occupy patches of nearshore habitat across Washington. These farms modify intertidal substrate by adding structural habitat via suspended oyster grow bags, predator exclusion nets, loose oyster beds, and other shellfish grow‐out gear. As interest and investment in shellfish aquaculture have expanded both locally and globally, so has interest in how these farms modify intertidal habitat and whether the complex structure created by the shellfish and shellfish growing gear provides ecosystem services that are comparable to those of unfarmed areas, such as mudflats and eelgrass meadows.MethodsIn this study, we sought to quantify how shellfish farms are used as foraging habitat for several common nearshore species of fish and crabs in Puget Sound, Washington. We used direct observations of species‐specific behaviors from underwater video to model how habitat type affected observed foraging rates.ResultWe obtained a total of 393 crab observations, 431 demersal fish observations, and 1856 pelagic fish observations across all seven farm sites. Several common species of pelagic fish (e.g., surfperch [Embiotocidae]) used aquaculture‐growing gear more frequently than unfarmed areas as foraging habitat, but Metacarcinus spp. crabs displayed higher foraging frequency in unfarmed mudflats. Species groups such as sculpins (Cottidae) and small flatfish (Pleuronectidae) clearly used specific aquaculture‐growing gear and mudflats in roughly equal proportion.ConclusionOur results indicate that shellfish farms within a larger nearshore habitat mosaic of eelgrass meadows, mudflats, bivalve aquaculture gear, and edge habitat can provide foraging habitat for several species of nearshore fish.

中文翻译：

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贝类养殖场作为近岸鱼类和螃蟹的觅食栖息地

过去 140 年来，北美各地的牡蛎礁急剧减少。在华盛顿州，奥林匹亚牡蛎牡蛎历史上，珊瑚礁为鱼类和无脊椎动物提供了水过滤和近岸结构栖息地，但该物种现已在其历史范围内功能性灭绝。主要由非本地太平洋牡蛎组成的贝类养殖场取代了这些天然存在的珊瑚礁大麦哲伦现在占据了华盛顿各地的近岸栖息地。这些养殖场通过悬挂的牡蛎生长袋、捕食者排除网、松散的牡蛎床和其他贝类养成装备来增加结构栖息地，从而改变潮间带基质。随着对贝类水产养殖的兴趣和投资在当地和全球范围内扩大，人们对这些养殖场如何改变潮间带栖息地以及贝类和贝类养殖装置形成的复杂结构是否提供与未养殖地区相当的生态系统服务也产生了兴趣，例如方法在这项研究中，我们试图量化贝类养殖场如何被用作华盛顿州普吉特海湾几种常见近岸鱼类和螃蟹的觅食栖息地。我们使用水下视频对物种特定行为的直接观察来模拟栖息地类型如何影响观察到的觅食率。结果我们在所有七个养殖场中总共获得了 393 个螃蟹观察结果、431 个底层鱼类观察结果和 1856 个中上层鱼类观察结果。几种常见的中上层鱼类（例如，鲈鱼 [Embiotocidae]）比未养殖地区更频繁地使用水产养殖渔具作为觅食栖息地，但是后癌属种。螃蟹在未养殖的泥滩中表现出较高的觅食频率。诸如杜父鱼 (Cottidae) 和小比目鱼 (Pleuronectidae) 等物种群体显然以大致相等的比例使用了特定的水产养殖渔具和泥滩。边缘栖息地可为多种近岸鱼类提供觅食栖息地。