Quantitative statistical analysis of the literature concerning the interaction of the environment and aquaculture?identification of gaps and lacks

Abstract

Aquaculture is a generic term that covers a wide variet of culture techniques and cultured s ecies under different conditions and in different geographicar localities. It is typically a littoral anirural activity, and is rapidly expanding. An assessment of available literature concerning the interaction of aquaculture and the environment was conducted using the Aquatic Science and Fisheries Abstract (ASFA) database from 1978 to December 1991, incorporating a variety of definitive key word strategies together with a classical search of the available literature. Of the 2692 references collected, 70% were made up of publications from the ASFA database, while 30% consisted of 'gre ' publications (i.e. Government re orts, Working Group reports and publications not included in tle ASFA database). The literature feaned from the ASFA database tends to refer to specific interactions of environment and a given cuLre s ecies in a iven location, while the grey literature tends to deal with the broader implications. Most orthe researct focuses on the most commonly cultured species in developed Western countries. Consequently, information on extensive aquaculture is based on the interactions arising from cyprinid (12%), oyster (13%) and mussel culture (8%), while information on intensive culture is concerned main1 with trout culture in fresh water (20%) and salmonid culture in shallow marine localities (6%). Tiere is a general lack of information on the waste output of commercial farming systems of marine finfish species new to the aquaculture industry and on their basic biological requirements in cultivation, as well as their environmental interactions. Other gaps in the literature relate to the discharge of chemicals into the environment and the effects on the immediate environs and adjacent ecosystems and the accidental or intentional release of cultured species.

Impact of fish farming facilities on Posidonia oceanica meadows: a review

“…While the impact of intensive marine pisciculture (cages) has been the subject of numerous studies in Northern Europe ( e.g. development of salmon farming; Gowen & Bradbury 1987; Munday et al. 1994; Merceron & Kempf 1995; Wu 1995), there is less data concerning its impact in the Mediterranean Sea, where the activity is more recent (Mendez et al.…”

Seasonal variability in sediment profiles beneath fish farm cages in the Mediterranean

“…These changes in the physical and chemical characteristics of the seabed induce conspicuous changes in the structure of the benthic communities (O'Connor et al 1989, Weston 1990, Pocklington et al 1994. Most of the above cited papers are related to the salmon industry in Northern Europe and North America, while very little is known about such impacts in the southern areas of the northern hemisphere including the Mediterranean (Munday et al 1994), where a continuously expanding farming industry of sea bream and sea bass has been established in the coastal zone. However in warm, oligotrophic seas with a microtidal marine environment such a s the Mediterranean, some deviations from the general patterns could b e expected as a result of higher metabolic rates, different temporal patterns in water movement and differences in the structure of plankton and benthic communities.…”

Salmon farm impacts on muddy-sediment megabenthic assemblages on the west coast of Scotland

“…The geochemical changes occurring as a consequence of detrital flux have a range of macrobenthic effects: accumulation of detritus on the seabed is associated with an increase in both sediment oxygen demand (Findlay & Watling 1997) and sediment sulphide concentration (Hargrave 2010) and the subsequent replacement of large, long-lived, burrowing species by small, short-lived opportunistic species (Gowen & Bradbury 1987, Munday et al 1994, Wu 1995, see comments in Skei et al 1996, reviewed by Black 1998. Less is known about the effects of fish farming on the soft-sediment megabenthos, and this may be, at least in part, because they are a difficult group to monitor (see below).…”