Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS34 Impacts of Aquaculture and Mariculture

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001, Time: 12:00:00 PM

Location: Sandia/Santa Ana

Cabrini, M, , Laboratory of Marine Biology, Trieste, Italy, cabrini@univ.trieste.it

THE IMPACT OF MUSSEL FARMS IN THE NORTHERN ADRIATIC ECOSYSTEM

Mariculture activity is widely developed in the world but important questions reamain to be addressed reagarding environmental impacts. In the Gulf of Trieste (Northern Adriatic Sea) since the half of last century, Mytilus galloprovincialis is intensively cultivated in long lines along the coast, but over the past decade the production dropped from 10,000 to 2,000 tons. This reduction is manly due to the contamination by Dinophysis, a summer and autumn Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) toxic dinoflagellate. Every year during its outbreaks the mussel sale is blocked causing several economic losses. Many ecological studies try to understand if the mussel farming might select plankton and benthos species or induce some organisms to produce toxins. Recently new Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) toxic species were found in local mussel farms. Biomass abundance and specific biodiversity were valuated inside and outside shellfish cultivations in order to assess their effects in the water column and on the sediments. Some decontaminations programs for mitigating the impact of harmful algae on shellfish, such as sinking the mussels at the bottom, were tried both to recover the product and to reduce the negative impact.

This Session Listing

Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

Quicklinks