Document type
Journal articles
Document subtype
Full paper
Title
Coastal Water Quality in an Atlantic Sea Bass Farm Site (Sines, Portugal): A First Assessment
Participants in the publication
Mara Gomes (Author)
Alexandre Correia (Author)
Lígia Pinto (Author)
Carolina Sá (Author)
Vanda Brotas (Author)
FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS DA UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA
Dep. Biologia Vegetal
MARE
Marcos Mateus (Author)
Summary
Aquaculture has become the fastest-growing sector of the food industry worldwide. The increase of intensive aquaculture practices, however, has been raising global concern about economic and social impacts, but mostly due to the associated potential environmental impacts. The aim of this report is to make a preliminary assessment of the impact of an intensive sea bass aquaculture (Dicentrarchus labrax, L. 1758) on surrounding coastal waters. The aquaculture site is located at the SW Iberian coast (Sines, Portugal), having 16 cages, each holding approximately 150,000 specimens at different stages of growth. We present a spatial and temporal description of environmental physical, chemical, and biological parameters taken in the course of four monitoring campaigns conducted between June 2018 and April 2019. All monitored parameters, except phosphate concentration in October only at one sampling station, showed values within the desirable ranges for marine finfish production and the natural range of Portuguese coastal waters. So far, results do not reveal any detrimental impact of the production units on local water quality, although more research is needed. The preliminary findings suggest that the lack of stress on the receiving waters may be attributed to the hydrodynamic regime in the production area, the feeding strategy, and the dimension of the production.
Editor(s)
Catarina Eira
Date of Submisson/Request
2019-10-31
Date of Acceptance
2020-03-05
Date of Publication
2020-04-03
Institution
FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS DA UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA
Where published
Frontiers in Marine Science
Publication Identifiers
ISSN - 2296-7745
Address
Lisbon, Portugal
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Document Identifiers
DOI -
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00175
URL -
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00175
Rankings
Web Of Science Q1 (2020) - 4.912 - MARINE & FRESHWATER BIOLOGY - SCIE
Web Of Science Q1 (2020) - 4.912 - MARINE & FRESHWATER BIOLOGY - SCIE
Keywords
aquaculture
sea bass
water quality
environmental impacts
coastal management
Dicentrarchus labrax
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