Jellyfish Impacts on Marine Aquaculture and Fisheries (original) (raw)
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Jellyfish are of particular concern for marine finfish aquaculture. In recent years repeated mass mortality episodes of farmed fish were caused by blooms of gelatinous cnidarian stingers, as a consequence of a wide range of hemolytic, cytotoxic, and neurotoxic properties of associated cnidocytes venoms. The mauve stinger jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca (Scy-phozoa) has been identified as direct causative agent for several documented fish mortality events both in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea aquaculture farms. We investigated the effects of P. noctiluca envenomations on the gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata by in vivo laboratory assays. Fish were incubated for 8 hours with jellyfish at 3 different densities in 300 l experimental tanks. Gill disorders were assessed by histological analyses and histopathological scoring of samples collected at time intervals from 3 hours to 4 weeks after initial exposure. Fish gills showed different extent and severity of gill lesions according to jellyfish density and incubation time, and long after the removal of jellyfish from tanks. Jellyfish envenomation elicits local and systemic inflammation reactions, histopathology and gill cell toxicity, with severe impacts on fish health. Altogether, these results shows P. nocti-luca swarms may represent a high risk for Mediterranean finfish aquaculture farms, generating significant gill damage after only a few hours of contact with farmed S. aurata. Due to the growth of the aquaculture sector and the increased frequency of jellyfish blooms in the coastal waters, negative interactions between stinging jellyfish and farmed fish are likely to increase with the potential for significant economic losses.
In recent years, there has been a steady rise, globally in the reports of jellyfish blooms and the damages that they cause. Jellyfish im-pacts on commercial fisheries include the clogging, tearing and collapse of nets, loss of fishing days, physical injury to the fishermen. Indirect impacts on fisheries include the competition of jellyfish with finfish over the same food source and direct predation of jellyfish on fish eggs and larvae. In the present paper we propose a methodology to evaluate both direct and indirect impacts of jellyfish on commercial fishery. We use the methodology to estimate the impacts of jellyfish in the eastern Mediterranean (Levant) on the Israeli fishery sector. Our estimation predicts a long run impact on annual profits of about 7 percent on Trawl Fishing and of 46 percent on Trammel and gill net fishing.
Jellyfish swarms in the Southern European Seas (SES: Mediterranean and Black Seas) are a recurrent phenomenon which is attracting a groundswell of scientific and societal interest, with potential repercussions for public health, recreation, tourism, fisheries, aquaculture and marine ecosystem health. But this phenomenon also occurs in other areas of the globe, necessitating a collaborative framework which extends beyond the SES. The goal of this International Workshop is thus to bring together people involved in jellyfish research and in management for two full days, and to open the discussion to a wider community than that simply found within the SES. The Workshop will tackle ecosystem services and potential societal benefits provided by jellyfish and their blooms, and detrimental impacts of jellyfish and their aggregations on PERSEUS study areas and other oceans. The main focus of the Workshop is to review the state of our understanding of jellyfish blooms and their dynamics, and to discuss the development of observational systems that will eventually enable better management of their impacts. Some of the topics that will be addressed in Cadiz are the following: how to strengthen our observational capacities to monitor jellyfish over time? (so as not to rely solely on citizen science for distribution and abundance data over time) how can we make use of recent technological advances for research and monitoring of jellyfish blooms? how to incorporate jellyfish in routine monitoring programmes that are carried out by specialists? (like for example phytoplankton or copepods) what knowledge gaps we still need to bridge in order to be able to advance our conceptual understanding of jellyfish blooms and to enhance predictive abilities? how to quantify the impact of jellyfish blooms within the context of Good Environmental Status achievement?
Jellyfish blooms perception in Mediterranean finfish aquaculture
A B S T R A C T In recent years, negative impacts of jellyfish blooms (JB) on marine human activities have been increasingly reported. Aquaculture has been affected by jellyfish outbreaks, mostly documented through repeated episodes of farmed salmon mortalities in Northern Europe; however, the valuation of JB consequences on the aquaculture sector still remains poorly quantified. This study aims to provide the first quantitative evaluation effects of JB on finfish aquaculture in the Mediterranean Sea and to investigate the general awareness of JB impacts among Mediterranean aquaculture professional workers. The aquaculture workers' perception about JB was assessed through a structured interview-based survey administered across 21 aquaculture facilities in central and western Mediterranean. The workers' awareness about JB impacts on aquaculture differed among countries. Italian and Spanish fish farmers were better informed about jellyfish proliferations and, together with Tunisian farmers, they all recognized the wide potential consequences of JB on sea bream and sea bass aquaculture. On the contrary, the majority of Maltese respondents considered JB as a non-significant threat to their activity, mostly based on offshore tuna farming. This study for the first time shows that JB may negatively affect different Mediterranean aquaculture facilities from Tunisia (Sicily Channel) and Spain (Alboran Sea), by increasing farmed fish gill disorders and mortality, clogging net cages, or inflicting painful stings to field operators, with severe economic consequences. Available knowledge calls for the development of coordinated preventive plans, adaptation policies, and mitigation countermeasures across European countries in order to address the JB phenomenon and its impacts on coastal water activities.
Sustainability
Jellyfish are often described as a nuisance species, but as our understanding shifts to more ecosystem-based conceptions, they are also recognized as both important components of marine ecosystems and a resource for humans. Here, we describe global jellyfish fisheries and review production, fishing methods, and applications based on the existing literature. We then focus on future development of a European jellyfish fishery based on current and recent EU research initiatives. Jellyfish have been a staple food in East Asia for eons and now show a potential for non-food applications as well. The main fishing methods are mostly traditional, with set-nets, driftnets, hand-nets, and scoop-nets utilizing small crafts or beach-seines. All require a lot of manual labor, thus providing vital, albeit seasonal, occupation to weaker populations. Larger commercial vessels such as purse seines and trawlers are newly introduced métiers which may enable a larger catch per unit effort and total catc...
Living with Jellyfish: Management and Adaptation Strategies
Jellyfish Blooms, 2013
While jellyfi sh are some of the most ancient multicellular organisms on Earth, man only started to take notice of their impact on human activity and enterprise from about the 1960s. In some regions of the world, jellyfi sh blooms impose considerable socio-economic hardship to net-based fi sheries, aquaculture, power generation and tourism. Blooms are likely to be diffi cult if not impossible to eradicate, but these industries are striving to develop management strategies that will enable them to successfully coexist with blooms. This chapter reviews the detrimental effects that jellyfi sh have on society and human wellbeing. We also summarise adaptation and management strategies that are currently being developed and utilised by fi shing, power generation and tourism industries to educate and inform the public and manage the actual jellyfi sh blooms and help ensure the fi nancial viability of these industries in regions that experience blooms.
Jellyfish Blooms: New Problems and Solutions
Springer eBooks, 2010
This third volume in the Jellyfish Blooms series was inspired by the large aggregation of jellyfish scientists that presented papers at the Aquatic Sciences Meeting: A Cruise through Nice Waters, sponsored by ASLO (Advancing the Science of Limnology and Oceanography) in Nice, France, in January, 2009. More than 60 presentations were given in three sessions: New Approaches to the Study of Gelatinous Zooplankton, organized and chaired by Drs. Christofer Troedsson and José Luis Acuña; Harmful Jelly Blooms (HJBs)-What are we doing to understand and mitigate these?, organized and chaired by Drs.
Jellyfish blooms and management implications in the Northeast Atlantic
2017
Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of East Anglia 2018 This copy of the thesis has been submitted on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with the current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotations or extract must include full attribution.