This study determined the movements of a Giant Grouper, Epinephelus lanceolatus, in which an acoustic tag was surgically implanted and monitored by an array of six VR2W acoustic receiver units from August 2010 to January 2013 in the remote, uninhabited Chesterfield Islands, Coral Sea (800 km West of New Caledonia). Our data revealed a home reef area (residency rate of 44.9%) with...
An increase in aquatic animal production can be achieved by extending aquaculture areas geographically, utilizing new species for culture, and using new technologies. Among new technologies useful for the increase of aquaculture production is the application of genetics and genomics. New molecular tools that benefit aquaculture have been developed. There has been a large number...
In the north-eastern Atlantic, meagre (Argyrosomus regius) is one of the largest fish living on the shelf and this species has important commercial interest. Over the past two decades, large variations in meagre abundance have been observed with pluri-annual cycles but the factors involved in such variations are still unclear. Trophic interactions between meagre and other species...
The gilthead seabream, Sparus aurata, is common in the Mediterranean Sea and along the Atlantic coasts of Portugal, Spain and France. Abundance of S. aurata has recently increased along the Brittany coast, showing good adaptation and acclimatisation to northern waters away from its original distribution range. The physiological adaptations (diet, reproduction, growth) of this...
The effect of a flexible Turtle Excluder Device (TED) on the catching efficiency and performance of a commercial bottom trawl was tested in a gear comparison study for a Mediterranean coastal multispecies bottom trawl fishery. The device affected neither bottom trawl technical performances (horizontal and vertical net opening and door spread) nor did it increase the required...
This study is aimed at investigating the toxic effects on clams (Sinonovacula constricta) exposed to selected concentrations of individual crude oil: water accommodated fraction (WAF) and chemically enhanced (or dispersed) WAF (CEWAF). For this purpose, a study was performed on clams exposed to 0.04 mg L-1 and 0.01 mg L-1 WAF and CEWAF for 15 days, using parameters of antioxidant...
Time series of physico-chemical data and concentrations (cell L-1) of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum collected in the Rance macrotidal estuary (Brittany, France) were analyzed to understand the physico-chemical processes of the estuary and their relation to changes in bloom development from 1996 to 2009. The construction of the tidal power plant in the north and the...
In the Gulf of Gabès (South-eastern Tunisia), polychaete bait digging is widely practiced for recreational and commercial fishing and is an economically significant activity. The present study aims to assess the short-term effects of intertidal bait digging on macrobenthic communities from the Kneiss Islands. Following a protocol with a control station (not impacted) and three...
The caramote prawn, Melicertus kerathurus, is a Penaeidae species inhabiting the Mediterranean Sea and the Est Atlantic Ocean. Caramote prawn represents a commercially important species in terms of both aquaculture and fishing; however, there is poor information on its reproductive biology in Mediterranean and, particularly, in Tunisian waters. To fulfil such a gap, monthly...
Responses of four toxicological indices (7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase, EROD; glutathione S-transferase, GST; superoxide dismutase, SOD; and malondialdehyde, MDA) were studied in Portunus trituberculatus gill and liver during enrichment with benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) release at day 15. During BaP enrichment, toxicological indices in the gill and liver the 0.05 and 0.45 μg L-1 test...
Bioaccumulation and ultrastructural alterations in gill and liver tissues of 3-month old Asian sea bass, Lates calcarifer, in response to copper were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Fishes were exposed to two sublethal concentrations of copper (6.83 ppm and 13.66 ppm) for a period of 28 days. Accumulation of copper were higher in the liver followed by gills...
Changes in marine species abundance can impact ecosystems’ stability and sustainability of fisheries. In the eastern Atlantic Ocean, harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) are top predator occupying highest trophic level in coastal marine food webs. Although, the overall European population decline, harbour seals have increased dramatically since the 1990’s at the southern limit of their...
To develop selection programs for the great scallop, artificial reproduction of the species needs to be improved by gamete cryobanking. Here, a set of four experiments was designed in order to define the basic elements of a cryopreservation protocol for scallop sperm, including extender composition (experiment 1), cryoprotectant selection (2), cooling rate (3), and assessment of...
The Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) (SRO) is an oyster species that only occurs in estuaries along Australia’s east coast. The SRO industry evolved from commercial gathering of oyster in the 1790s to a high production volume aquaculture industry in the 1970s. However, since the late 1970s the SRO industry has experienced a significant and continuous decline in...
A real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was developed for the identification and quantification of two oyster species: Ostrea edulis and Crassostrea gigas. Two sets of primers and TaqMan-MGB probes were designed, based on partial sequences of the 16S rRNA gene. An amplification positive control system was also located in the 18S rRNA gene sequences. Closely related...
This study relied on the day-by-day analysis of bioenergetics and prey size preference in isolated cannibals of the African catfish Heterobranchus longifilis (13–57 mm standard length, 3–500 mg dry body mass, n = 153) that were offered ad libitum conspecific prey of adequate sizes in small-sized (2-L) environments under controlled conditions (12L:12D, 30 °C). In these conditions...
The aim of this project was to evaluate the impact of probiotic (Phaeobacter gallaeciensis, X34 strain) treatment on the complete development (from veliger to metamorphosis) of Pecten maximus larvae in the context of a bacterial challenge and in conditions more representative of hatchery practices. To that effect, the present study was divided into two main steps. In the first...
In 2009, the European Commission set restricted fishing areas northwest of the British Isles to protect deep-sea vulnerable marine ecosystems and fish stocks. Two protection areas which, historically, have been targeted by fisheries directed at blue ling (Molva dypterygia), were defined. The study aims to assess the effectiveness of restricting fishing activity within the...
There is growing interest in bio-economic models as tools for understanding pathways of fishery behaviour, in order to assess the impact on natural resources. Based on ‘FishRent’, a modelling approach is presented that integrates economics of the fleet, the impact of fishing on stock development and their spatio-temporal interplay. The simulation of species seasonal movements in...
Data from the MEDITS bottom trawl surveys in the Eastern Ionian Sea, covering a depth range of 28 to 845 m were analysed for the period 1998–2008. For each trawling location, environmental and geographical parameters were recorded, while biomass, abundance, biodiversity and size-based metrics were estimated for the total megafaunal community, as well as for four taxonomic sub...
Conservation of threatened large sharks and management of shark-human interactions requires an understanding of shark occurrence and movement patterns. Here, we present the first catch, movement and behaviour data of adult bull sharks, Carcharhinus leucas, in New Caledonia. Amongst six adult C. leucas tagged with passive acoustic tags, four females were caught in coastal waters...
Cupped oysters (Ostreidae, genus Crassostrea) occupy nearshore marine and estuarine habitats worldwide, providing many ecosystem goods and services as well as being a commercially important group of bivalves. In this study, the species identification of an “adulterant” oyster with small body size, which is often misidentified as a “young individual” of other sympatric species...
A statistical approach to evaluate the temporal trends in the abundance of female Centroscymnus coelolepis in Portuguese waters of ICES division IXa is presented. A state space model is used, which integrates all the available information of the species’ life history as well as knowledge of its biological dynamics. The model involves two processes that run in parallel: a non...