Naslov
Meiofauna and farm affected wild fish monitoring as new requirement of assessing influence of fish farm structures on the marine environment

Autori
Krželj, Maja ; Šimat, Vida ; Bratinčević, Sandra ; Bogdanović, Tanja

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u zbornicima skupova, cjeloviti rad (in extenso), znanstveni

Izvornik
Contributions on the Theory of Fishing Gears and Related Marine Systems Vol. 7 / Paschen, Mathias ; Soldo, Alen - Aachen : Shaker, 2011, 55-64

ISBN
978-3-8440-0468-7

Skup
Tenth International Workshop on Methods for the Development and Evaluation of Maritime Technologies

Mjesto i datum
Split, Hrvatska, 26.10.2011. - 29.10.2011

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Meiofauna; Fish; Fish farm impact; Monitoring; Marine environment

Sažetak
This paper gives an overview of the work undertaken at the University of Split as a part of national research programme, with aim to evaluate the impact of fish farms on marine ecosystem. Croatian finfish aquaculture has spread rapidly over the past decade. Despite the observed influence of fish farms on marine ecosystem, obligated monitoring is farm-specific and usually requires the assessment of macrobenthos, plankton and chemical parameters of water and sediment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usage of organisms not included in standard monitoring (meiofauna, wild fish aggregated around the cages) as potential method of assessing impact of fish farms and its structures on the marine environment. Meiofauna organisms are good environmental indicators with a crucial role in nutrient cycling and in energy flow of benthic division. Biodeposition caused by fish farm activities can provoke changes in meiofaunal abundance, community structure and biodiversity. To investigate this, meiofauna samples were collected on two different stations, one situated below the fish farm and the other one in area without fish farm impact. Net-cage fish farms structures are known artificial fish aggregation devices widely recognized for their capacity to attract a great number of wild fish, altering their behaviour and physiology. Wild fish affected by farms could be possible environmental indicators, thus bogue (Boops boops), as one of the most abundant fish species around the farm cages was investigated, using samples caught from populations aggregated around fish farming cages and from area not influenced by the fish farms. Statistically significant difference was observed in meiofauna regarding the sampling location. Also, bogue samples differed in proximate composition and other investigated physical and chemical parameters. All variables were submitted to multivariate analyses in order to evaluate the importance of each studied parameter, thus to separate the variables that describe cage affected changes that could be used in the biological monitoring. The principal component analyses showed distinct separation of wild and farm affected samples, placing the sets of data opposite to each other in both meiofauna and bogue analyses. Two main factors (farm impact and depth) had affected the distribution and abundance of meiofauna organisms, but farm impact was found the most significant. Similar was with bogues, catching ground induced most differences between samples. Monitoring of meiobenthos and wild fish populations aggregated around the farms could be used as monitoring requirements of assessing influence of fish farms structures on the marine environment.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Poljoprivreda (agronomija), Biotehnologija

POVEZANOST RADA