Role of artificial reef for fish and fisheries: application to artifical reefs of Leucate - Le Barcarès (Gulf of Lion, Mediterranean Sea)
Awareness of natural resource limitation was raised since the first fish stock collapse, promoting the need of efficient management tools for sustainable exploitation of resources. In contrast with other, more widely used management tools, artificial reefs (AR) try to keep the equilibrium of sustain...
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Other Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
Language: | French |
Published: |
HAL CCSD
2012
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://theses.hal.science/tel-03790455 https://theses.hal.science/tel-03790455/document https://theses.hal.science/tel-03790455/file/Koeck_2012_RV_original.pdf |
Summary: | Awareness of natural resource limitation was raised since the first fish stock collapse, promoting the need of efficient management tools for sustainable exploitation of resources. In contrast with other, more widely used management tools, artificial reefs (AR) try to keep the equilibrium of sustainable exploitation trough the physical alteration of natural habitats in order to enhance local fish production. The alteration of natural seascapes by AR implantations impacts reef fish populations and communities. We investigated some of the potential effects of the AR from Leucate – Le Barcarès (LB; NW Mediterranean) using underwater visual counts, landing surveys and acoustic tagging on white sea bream (Diplodus sargus). The ARs of LB were used as essential habitat by white sea breams, particularly for refuge and foraging. Furthermore, functional diversity on these ARs was higher than on a natural reef location, which could convey an increased carrying capacity and fish production on the French Catalan sandy coast. These effects are nevertheless not directly visible on fish landings and production, due to lower fish catchability on ARs. Moreover, habitat alteration by ARs arises new movement patterns of the white sea bream suggesting individual specialization within the realized niche of white sea breams from the French Catalan sandy coast. Individual specialization can have implications on functioning of food webs and ecosystem resilience, but also more long term consequences as speciation by mating isolation. These potential effects of ARs on coastal fish communities and populations should be taken into account for future AR projects. Depuis les premiers effondrements de stocks de poissons, l’Homme a pris conscience que les ressources naturelles étaient limitées et que pour les exploiter de manière durable, il était important de trouver des outils de gestion. Contrairement aux autres outils de gestion des ressources halieutique existants, les RA sont les seuls dont l’objectif est de maintenir l’équilibre de ... |
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