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Evaluation of Artificial Reefs Impact on Artisanal Fisheries: Necessity of Complementary Approaches

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Global Change: Mankind-Marine Environment Interactions

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Abstract

Currently, fisheries in all oceans are declining as a consequence of overfishing and other phenomena like global warming. Artisanal fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea are following this trend, which is intensified by the high price increase of oil. In this context, some management strategies need to be proposed to maintain both natural stocks and human activities.

Complementary to the quotas and marine protected areas, the artificial reefs may be one part of the solution. Concerning the fisheries context, artificial reefs (AR) can induce new habitats, more or less complex, to allow the development of rocky fish (adult and/or juvenile). Species from sandy bottoms also profit from these artificial structures because they provide protection of adjacent zones from illegal trawling. We study some artificial reefs in the south of Lion’s Gulf (near Le Barcarès/Leucate, Mediterranean Sea) constituted by six “villages” of 12 ha (300 × 400 m). Each zone contains 28 modules of three types: pipes, cubes, and construction debris.

We use different methods to evaluate the effectiveness of artificial reefs:

  • Visual count by diving

  • Observation of commercial landing in each harbor

  • External tagging of fish

Visual census showed a significantly higher species richness and density on ARs than on the control site. Abundance, biomass, and LPUE data (Landings Per Unit of Effort) issued from artisanal fisheries landing surveys were not significantly different around the AR system from other fishing grounds of the French Catalan coast. The tagging experiments on Diplodus sargus suggested that the connectivity of demersal fish populations must be taken into account to evaluate the influence area of ARs and thus their indirect impacts on artisanal fisheries. This study highlights the potential of combining methods covering different spatial scales to evaluate direct and indirect impacts of ARs on artisanal fisheries. Methods for the evaluation of AR efficiency are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR 5244 CNRS, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Université de Perpignan, Perpignan, France

    P. Lenfant & J. Pastor

  2. OCEANIDE, Perpignan, France

    N. Dalias

  3. GIS Posidonie, Marseille, France

    P. Astruch

Authors
  1. P. Lenfant
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  2. J. Pastor
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  3. N. Dalias
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  4. P. Astruch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Pastor .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Laboratoire de Microbiologie, Géochimie, UMR 6117, Centre d’Océanologie de Marsei, Campus Universitaire de Luminy, Marseille Cedex 09, 13288, France

    Hubert-Jean Ceccaldi

  2. Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, COM OSU, Université de la Méditerranée, Campus de Luminy Case 901, Marseille Cedex 09, 13288, France

    Ivan Dekeyser

  3. Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, Lab. Océanographie et de Biogéochimie, Université de la Méditerranée, Campus de Luminy Case 901, Marseille Cedex 09, 13288, France

    Mathias Girault

  4. Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, Lab. Océanographie et de Biogéochimie, Université de la Méditerranée, Campus de Luminy Case 901, Marseille Cedex 09, 13288, France

    Georges Stora

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Lenfant, P., Pastor, J., Dalias, N., Astruch, P. (2010). Evaluation of Artificial Reefs Impact on Artisanal Fisheries: Necessity of Complementary Approaches. In: Ceccaldi, HJ., Dekeyser, I., Girault, M., Stora, G. (eds) Global Change: Mankind-Marine Environment Interactions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8630-3_19

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