engleski

Impact of semi-offshore tuna farms on fitness status of wild fish populations: gilthead seabream as a case study species from the eastern Adriatic Sea

In the last two decades, a significant increase in wild gilthead seabream populations has been observed in some coastal areas of Mediterranean Sea including the Adriatic Sea. Synergic effects of global warming (Coscia et al. 2011), fish escapement through farming and spawning in cages (Somarakis et al. 2013) can partially explain such phenomenon. The recent trend of gilthead seabream expansion in the Adriatic Sea is accompanied with increased damages on mussel farms caused by seabream predation and fish competition for a new food sources and habitats (Šegvić-Bubić et al. 2011). Nowdays, increased abundance of the gilthead seabreams has been seen around tuna farms. Modified environment and altered trophic network with bait-fish (anchovy, sardines) as a main source of food around farms may induce range of fitness consequences for aggregated fish populations. For this, we investigated (1) seabream abundance and its dietary composition, (2) proxy measures of fitness of farm-associated and unassociated fish including fatty acid composition, body and gonad condition indices and (3) fish scale microchemistry.

Impact, semi-offshore tuna farms, proxy measures of fitness

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