Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

Monitoring of the artificial reef fish assemblages of golfe juan marine protected area (France, North-Western Mediterranean)

Artificial reefs were deployed within the Golfe-Juan marine protected area (Alpes-Maritimes coast, France, Northwestern Mediterranean) created in 1981. This no-take area is fully protected since its establishment, except in 2004 when some anthropic activities were, exceptionally, authorized. Moreover, no park rangers to prevent poaching since 2002 occur. In order to carry out a long term monitoring of the artificial reef fish assemblages, underwater visual censuses (UVC) were carried out in 1988, 1998 and 2008, according to a traditional standardized visual census method that taken into account all fish species. The complexification of some large reefs built with wide voide spaces called Bonna reefs appear to be a good solution to increase species richness and density. Species richness and density of the fish assemblages showed significant increase between 1988 and 1998. However the fast increasing was stopped from 1998 and 2008 probably due to a lack of law enforcement and poaching. Despite artificial reefs were deployed in MPA since at least 20 years, they did not show a real positive impact on fish assemblages. These results could be explained (i) by a lack of law enforcement patrol within the protected areas during the last decade, and (ii) by the one-year opening to fishing activities within MPA. The real effectiveness of the artificial reefs in sustaining fish assemblages is discussed and the necessity of a regular and efficient control by park rangers is highlighted.

Artificial reefs; Mediterranean sea; Fish assemblages; MPAs; UVC; Monitoring; Reefs performance


Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto Oceanográfico Praça do Oceanográfico, 191 , 05508-120 Cidade Universitária, São Paulo - SP - Brasil, Tel.: (55 11) 3091-6501, Fax: (55 11) 3032-3092 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: io@usp.br