Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T10:07:40.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Differences in escape response of fish in protected and fished Mediterranean rocky reefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2008

P. Guidetti ,
E. Vierucci  and
S. Bussotti
P. Guidetti*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Zoology and Marine Biology, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
E. Vierucci
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Zoology and Marine Biology, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
S. Bussotti
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Zoology and Marine Biology, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Paolo GuidettiLaboratory of Zoology and Marine Biology University of Salento73100 LecceItaly email: paolo.guidetti@unile.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In both protected and fished rocky reefs in the southern Adriatic Sea, the behaviour of the sea breams Diplodus sargus and D. vulgaris (both targeted by spear-fishing) in the presence of divers was found to be mostly negative (i.e. escape response). However, at protected reefs sea breams frequently swam into the closest shelters, whereas in fished reefs they mostly escaped in open water. This study suggests that spear-fishing may alter the escape response of fish from natural predators and that marine reserves may re-establish natural behaviour patterns.

Keywords

marine protected areasfish behaviourtemperate rocky reefsMediterranean Sea
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 88 , Issue 3 , May 2008 , pp. 625 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Coll, J., Linde, M., Garcia-Rubies, A., Riera, F. and Grau, A.M. (2004) Spear fishing in the Balearic Islands (west central Mediterranean): species affected and catch evolution during the period 1975–2001. Fisheries Research 70, 97–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domenici, P. (2002) The visually mediated escape response in fish: predicting prey responsiveness and the locomotor behaviour of predators and prey. Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology 35, 87–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guidetti, P. (2006) Marine reserves re-establish lost predatory interactions and cause community-wide changes in Mediterranean rocky-reefs. Ecological Applications 16, 963–976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guidetti, P. and Sala, E. (2007) Community-wide effects of marine reserves in the Mediterranean Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series 335, 43–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halpern, B.S. (2003) The impact of marine reserves: do reserves work and does reserve size matter? Ecological Application 13, 117–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harmelin, J.G., Bachet, F. and Garcia, F. (1995) Mediterranean marine reserves: fish indices as tests of protection efficiency. Marine Ecology 16, 233–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jouvenel, J.Y. and Pollard, D.A. (2001) Some effects of marine reserve protection on the population structure of two spearfishing target-fish species, Dicentrarchus labrax (Moronidae) and Sparus aurata (Sparidae), in shallow inshore waters, along a rocky coast in the north-western Mediterranean Sea. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 11, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulbicki, M. (1998) How the acquired behaviour of commercial reef fishes may influence the results obtained from visual censuses. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 222, 11–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowry, M. and Suthers, I. (2004) Population structure of aggregation, and response to spear fishing, of a large temperate reef fish Cheilodactylus fuscus. Marine Ecology Progress Series 273, 199–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Micheli, F., Halpern, B.S., Botsford, L.W. and Warner, R.R. (2004) Trajectories and correlates of community change in no-take marine reserves. Ecological Applications 14, 1709–1723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milazzo, M., Anastasi, I. and Willis, T.J. (2005) Recreational fish feeding affects coastal fish behaviour and increases frequency of predation on damselfish Chromis chromis nests. Marine Ecology Progress Series 310, 165–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milazzo, M., Badalamenti, F., Fernàndez, T.V. and Chemello, R. (2005) Effects of fish feeding by snorkelling on the density and size distribution of fishes in a Mediterranean marine protected area. Marine Biology 146, 1213–1222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radford, C.A., Jeffs, A.G., Tindle, C.T., Cole, R.G. and Montgomery, J.C. (2005) Bubbled waters: the noise generated by underwater breathing apparatus. Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology 38, 259–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sala, E., Boudouresque, C.F. and Harmelin-Vivien, M.L. (1998) Fishing, trophic cascades, and the structure of algal assemblages: evaluation of an old but untested paradigm. Oikos 82, 425–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Underwood, A.J. (1997) Experiments in ecology: their logic, design and interpretation using analysis of variance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vacchi, M., Bussotti, S., Guidetti, P. and La Mesa, G. (1998) Study on the coastal fish assemblage in Ustica Island's Marine Reserve (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea) Italian Journal of Zoology 65, 281–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zabala, M., Louisy, P., Garcia-Rubies, A. and Garcia, V. (1997) Socio-behavioural context of reproduction in the Mediterranean dusky grouper Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834) (Pisces, Serranidae) in the Medes Islands Marine Reserve. Scientia Marina 61, 79–89.Google Scholar