Meagre escapees: consequences of a local-absent farmed species in the W-Mediterranean
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1
University of Alicante, Department of Marine Science and Applied Biology, Spain
Meagre (Argyrosomus regius Asso, 1810) is a large sciaenid considered an emerging species in the European aquaculture, especially for W-Mediterranean countries. Meagre production has grown rapidly in recent years, being Spain, Turkey, Italy and France are the main meagre producer countries in the world, but it is also cultivated on small scale in other Mediterranean countries, such as Malta, Croatia or Morocco. However, farmed meagre might escape from net-pens of coastal floating facilities leading to economic losses for farmers, but also causing environmental problems on coastal ecosystems.
The geographic distribution and genetic fragmentation of meagre native populations suggest that farmed meagre should be considered nowadays as “local-absent” fish in most of the Mediterranean regions where it is being farmed. Therefore, the potential risks of escaped meagre might be higher than those reported for native species, although often unpredictable. Meagre escapees might spread diseases and pathogens to nearby farms or local fish populations, competing for natural resources (food and habitat) and predating on other species. Consequently, the interactions of escaped fish with wild populations might have also indirect socio-economic effects on local fisheries and consumers. Nevertheless, escape events from meagre aquaculture and they derived environmental and socio-economic interactions have been scarcely reported up today, and therefore, further studies are highly needed to understand and evaluate the potential consequences of what is being farmed in the Mediterranean.
Keywords:
Escapes,
Aquaculture,
Fisheries,
behaviour,
Environmental Impacts,
coastal management
Conference:
XV European Congress of Ichthyology, Porto, Portugal, 7 Sep - 11 Sep, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Ecology, Conservation and Invasive Species
Citation:
Arechavala-Lopez
P and
Sanchez-Jerez
P
(2015). Meagre escapees: consequences of a local-absent farmed species in the W-Mediterranean.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
XV European Congress of Ichthyology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2015.03.00092
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Received:
19 Nov 2015;
Published Online:
19 Nov 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Pablo Arechavala-Lopez, University of Alicante, Department of Marine Science and Applied Biology, Alicante, 03690, Spain, pablo.arechavala@ua.es