Benthic recovery after fish farming cessation: A “beyond-BACI” approach

Published source details Aguado-Giménez F., Piedecausa M.A., Gutiérrez J.M., García-Charton J.A., Belmonte A. & García-García B. (2012) Benthic recovery after fish farming cessation: A “beyond-BACI” approach. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 64, 729-738.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Cease or prohibit aquaculture activity Action Link

Cease or prohibit aquaculture activity

A before-and-after, site comparison study in 2007–2008 in three soft seabed locations 4.8 km off the coast of Murcia, Mediterranean Sea, southeast Spain (Aguado-Giménez et al. 2012) found that eight months after removing a fish farm, the worm community had changed but was still different from that of two nearby unfarmed sites. The similarity in worm community between the farmed and unfarmed sites did not increase after removal (before: 43%; after: 41% similarity). However, abundance of opportunistic (indicating pollution) Capitellidae species decreased, while abundances of Onuphidae and Sabellidae species (indicating good health of sediment) increased at the farmed site after eight months (abundances not reported). A fish farm was dismantled in November 2007. One farmed site and two unfarmed sites (1 km and 1.3 km from the farmed site) were surveyed twice before (January and July 2007) and twice after (January and July 2008) dismantling. Four sediment samples were taken by divers at each site during each survey using a hand grab (20 x 10 x 10 cm). Worms (> 0.5 mm) were identified to family level and counted.

(Summarised by: Anaëlle Lemasson)