POTENCIAL DO REPOVOAMENTO PISCÍCOLA NA COSTA SUL DO ALGARVE COM ESPÉCIES MARINHAS AUTÓCTONES PRODUZIDAS EM CATIVEIRO

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Potential of fisheries restocking off the Algarve coast using aquaculture produced marine fish

Publication . Lino, Pedro; Santos, M. N.; Erzini, Karim

The clear decrease in fisheries landings along the Portuguese coast and in the same scale off the south coast of the Algarve prompted IPIMAR, the Portuguese fisheries institute to test recovery measures for the stocks. In addition to restrictive measures such as mesh size, fishing effort or minimum legal size, it is possible to foster stock recovery with positive measures. Having created an artificial reef along the south cost of Algarve, IPIMAR proposed to investigate the possibility of stock enhancement by releasing hatchery produced and reared fish. Since IPIMAR already had the know-how to produce several Sparidae species, namely Sparus aurata, Diplodus sargus, D. vulgaris and D. cervinus, it was possible to conduct experimental tag and release trials with these species. Although similar studies have been carried out in other countries, it is a requirement that local species are tested at the local scale. Therefore the main objective of this study was to assess the potential of restocking the Algarve coast with hatchery produced fish. In addition, there was a concern that the release of hatchery produced fish could have a negative genetic impact on the wild populations. The results of the study show that if a good management of the brood stock is carried out, there is no significant loss of genetic diversity and therefore the release of this fish will not have a negative effect on the wild populations. The results obtained through several tagging methods from conventional numbered tags to acoustic telemetry, indicate that the release of fish off this coast could have a positive impact at the local level since the selected species are able to quickly adapt to the natural environment and the dispersion occurs mainly along the South coast of the Algarve.

2012Doctoral thesis

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