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The last twenty five years multiple management issues concerning the suspended farming of filter feeding bivalves in Greece have emerged from the deficient implementation of different legislation regimes, that, on their own account, have been proven insufficient. Specifically, regarding the planning and management of cultivation areas, multiple alternatives have been proposed through the years, with some still being under consideration. Yet most of them were selected based on purely spatial criteria and none has been thoroughly investigated, regarding the system's carrying capacity. As the current governance structure, in combination with the previous and current legal framework, seems unable to solve the existing problems, a question arises: are the “legal” solutions the optimum –or even among the best-regarding the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of the coastal aquaculture in the areas under consideration? In this paper we attempt a discussion between science and management, regarding the 3 main mussel-farming areas of Thermaikos gulf, Greece: Chalastra, Imathia and Pieria. The tools that were designed in the context of integration between science and policy are used in order to investigate the appropriate structure and flexibility of the legal framework controlling the activity and the governance level in which this control should take place. Previous and ongoing research results from combined management models, implemented or developed, for the mussel-farming areas of Thermaikos gulf are the starting point of this discussion. The goal is to detect “weak spots” of the current legal framework and to investigate if and how scientific management tools can assist in the development of more flexible, yet more effective environmental legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale mussel farming in the coastal area of Chalastra (Thermaikos Gulf, Greece) has faced major problems during the last decade due to environmental limitations and to institutional constraints imposed by the absence of local planning and development policies. The aim of our work was to demonstrate crucial aspects of implementing the Systems Approach Framework (SAF) in the area, and more specifically to explain: (a) the key parts of a bioeconomic model that constitutes the basis of a draft management tool, (b) the results of several investigative scenarios examined through the management tool, and (c) the stakeholders' feedback through the participative procedures. The goal was to evaluate the effects of the SAF implementation on the communication between scientists, policy makers, and local stakeholders. The scenarios refer to alternative farming techniques and different environmental conditions, and examine the effects of institutional deficiencies in qualitative and quantitative ways, regarding the sustainability of the activity. The selection of the scenarios was directed from the need to provide a dialogue platform between the conflicting stakeholders. The results clearly demonstrate the effects of mussel-farming techniques on mussel production, as well as the impacts of environmental conditions, human decisions, and institutional choices on the regional (and individual) economic welfare. In the bottom line, the value of the SAF is demonstrated through the apprehension of the policy issue, its impacts, and the alternative management perspectives, as well as through the establishment of a multidimensional collaboration group for the area, which is essential for the further development of the management tool and the implementation of an integrated management policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]