Ecological Investigation Of Dongying Estuary Shallow Sea Shellfish Ecology National Special Marine Protected Area

Dongying estuary is a famous shellfish growing areas. In recent years, estuarinemarine environment deteriorated, causing serious damage to fisheries resources.Dongying Estuary Shallow Sea Shellfish Ecology National Special Marine ProtectedArea was set up in2009, in order to protect and promote the sustainable developmentof fishery resources. Reserve was situated in the coastal waters of the Yellow RiverDelta, the south bank of the Bohai Bay, located between the shoals and-5m shallowwaters in the reign from118°07’30"E to118°25’00"E and38°02’49"N to38°16’44"N.For the purpose of providing the background information for the protected areas, acomprehensive evaluation of the ecological environment quality of protected areaswas conducted in May (spring), August (summer), October (autumn) of2010,including hydrological environment (temperature, salinity), water chemistryenvironment, biological environment. The hydrological environment results of theprotected areas are showed as follows: sea surface temperature ranged from15.5°C to30.5°C, with an average of23.7°C; surface salinity ranged from24to35, with anaverage of30.56; dissolved oxygen concentration oscillated in the range of6.6~14.9mg/L, with an average of10.3mg/L; pH changed in the range of8.01to8.64, with anaverage value of8.39; chemical oxygen consumption changed in the range of2.15to16.3mg/L, with the mean value of8.29mg/L; activity phosphate ranged from0.02to1.37mg/L, with the mean value of0.33mg/L; ammonia ranged from0.01to0.34mg/L, with the mean value of0.11mg/L; biochemical oxygen consumption changedin the range of0.33~9.42mg/L, with an average of4.37mg/L; the chlorophyll achanged in the range of1.12to14.08mg/m3, averaged4.13mg/m3. Results ofplankton in the protected areas were showed as follows: during the3seasonal surveys,a total of10families and68species of phytoplankton were detected. Diatoms:7families and59species; dinoflagellates:3families and9species. The most abundantspecies of Diatoms is Family Coscinodiscus, including23species; in the phylumdinoflagellates, family Ceratiaceae Lindemann and Peridiniaceae are the largestspecies of dinoflagellates, including4species each. The most of phytoplankton in theprotected area were the coast eurythermic and euryhaline species. There are also anumber of oceanic species and benthic adhesion species. Detected zooplankton belonged to four phylums14orders and28families, a total of47species. The averageamount of zooplankton was1947.5ind./m3. Most of them are temperate widetemperature low-salt inshore species, inner bay species and some oceanic speciessuitable for a wide range of temperature and salt. Large benthic samples were alsoidentified. A total of18species were detected, most of them were shellfish, up to15species, accounting for83.3%of the total number of species; only one species ofcrustaceans was detected, belonging to crab, accounting5.6%of the total number ofspecies; two kinds of annulata were detected, accounting for11.1%of the totalnumber of species. The environmental assessment on the basis of the above resultsshowed that: dissolved oxygen concentration of the surveied stations was all withinthe first class of water quality standards; pH meet the first class of water qualitystandard stations accounted for68.75%of all survey stations; the active phosphatecontent over the fourth class of water quality standard (≥0.045mg/L) stationsaccounted for96.87%of all survey stations; ammonia concentration within the firstclass of water quality standard stations accounted for93.75%of all survey stations;chemical oxygen demand were mostly in line with three or four classes and over fourwater quality standard; biochemical oxygen consumption are in keeping with thefourth and over fourth class of marine water quality standard; phytoplankton andzooplankton diets were at a low level of overall and in the I level. In the spring survey,the main fishery harvesting was fish (9species), shellfish (12species), shrimp (3species), crabs (4species) and cephalopods class (2species), fish catch was12.93kg,and total mantissa was533tails; the summer survey fishery harvesting mainly wasfish (1species), shellfish (12species) shrimp (2species) and crab (5species),cephalopods did not appear in the survey stations, fish catches was25.12kg, and totalmantissa was6487tails; the autumn survey fishery harvesting mainly was fish (15species), shellfish (7species), shrimp (3species), crabs (7species) and cephalopodsclass (1species), fish catches was32.33kg, and total mantissa was5436tail.According to the calculated results from the surveys in the area of396.23squarekilometers of sea,23.68t of fish,35.22t of crustaceans,104.63t of shellfish and5.48tof cephalopods class were in the protected areas in spring; in summer627.91t of fish,292.3t of crustaceans and3041.61t of shellfish; in autumn1749.9t of fish,758.6t ofcrustaceans and5759.8t of shellfish. On the basis of these findings, it is analysisedthe current situation of reserve management and the main problems. Thecorresponding reserve management and protection strategies were proposed, orienting to provide support and help for the development of reserves.