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ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access published online on June 5, 2008
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil, doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsn091
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© 2008 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Published by Oxford Journals. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Seasonal patterns and diets of wild fish assemblages associated with Mediterranean coastal fish farms

Damian Fernandez-Jover1, Pablo Sanchez-Jerez1, Just Tomás Bayle-Sempere1, Carlos Valle1 and Tim Dempster2

1 Department of Marine Sciences and Applied Biology, University of Alicante, PO Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain
2 SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture, 7465 Trondheim, Norway

Correspondence to D. Fernandez-Jover: tel:+34 965 909840; fax: +34 965 909897; e-mail: jover{at}ua.es

Fernandez-Jover, D., Sanchez-Jerez, P., Bayle-Sempere, J. T., Valle, C., and Dempster, T. 2008. Seasonal patterns and diets of wild fish assemblages associated with Mediterranean coastal fish farms. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65.

Fish are attracted to floating structures, including coastal cage fish farms, sometimes in dense aggregations. To understand better the influence of aquaculture on wild fish stocks, we carried out seasonal visual censuses around three southwestern Mediterranean farms over 2 years to assess the temporal patterns of the aggregated fish assemblage. In addition, we analysed the diet of the five most abundant species. Aggregations around all farms were large throughout the year, although species composition and abundance differed among farms and seasons. Fish farms are attractive habitats for certain species of wild fish in specific seasons. Adult fish of reproductive size dominated the assemblages, and stomach content analysis revealed that 66–89% of fish of the five most abundant taxa had consumed food pellets lost from the cages. We estimated that wild fish consume up to 10% of the pellets used at farms, indicating that food is a key attractant. Regional monitoring of farm-associated wild fish assemblages could aid management of the interaction of aquaculture and wild fish resources, because changes in feeding behaviour may have consequences for fish populations and local fisheries.

Keywords: aquaculture impact, Mediterranean, spatial variability, temporal variability, wild fish

Received 7 January 2008; accepted 30 April 2008.


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