Abstract
Observations from the purse seine fishery off northern Portugal are used to describe the early dynamics of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) stress reactions and identify likely stressors during the commercial fishing operation. Sardine blood and muscle were sampled from the onset of fishing (school identification and encircling) to the end of fish transfer onboard (90–120 min later). The evolution of haematocrit, haemoglobin, cortisol, glucose, ionic concentrations, ATP and its catabolites were modelled using linear mixed models as a function of time spent in the net, biological (sex, reproductive state and condition) and operational variables (catch, light level and phase of fishing operation). Significant linear trends with time were detected for most stress variables and mean concentrations after 2 h in the net were similar to literature values corresponding to acute stress reactions for teleosts. Biological variables were rarely significant and explained a small proportion of variation, while operational variables were never significant. For each stress variable, levels varied considerably between trips but the temporal evolution was common across trips. Random trip effects were uncorrelated among most biochemical variables, suggesting that distinct factors affected each stress variable during the sampled trips. However, the linear trend with time spent in the net observed for most stress variables indicates that the duration of the fishing operation is an important stressor in purse seine fishing due to the progressive water volume restriction, crowding and manipulation associated to the fishing method.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Producer Organization CENTROLITORAL at Figueira da Foz and its chairman A. M. Lé for facilitating shipboard observations and sampling, together with the owners, skippers and crew members of the purse seine vessels Atleta, Além Mar, Nau dos Corvos, Beira Azul, and Titó. Three anonymous referees provided pertinent and helpful comments that allowed to improve the original manuscript. AM is grateful to Marta Costa, Rogério Mendes, Francisco Ruano and Alexandre Morais for advice in the laboratory. The work was part of the IPIMAR Programme PELAGICOS, funded by the Portuguese Ministry of Science (MLE 013/2000) and affiliated to the GLOBEC/SPACC initiative. Ana Marçalo was partly supported by a scholarship of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Live fish handling in this study complied with the existing Portuguese laws.
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Communicated by S.A. Poulet, Roscoff
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Marçalo, A., Mateus, L., Correia, J.H.D. et al. Sardine (Sardina pilchardus) stress reactions to purse seine fishing. Mar Biol 149, 1509–1518 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-006-0277-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-006-0277-5