Management of fish escapes from Mediterranean Sea cage aquaculture through artisanal fisheries

Fish escaping from net pens have always been considered a major source of socioeconomic and ecological issues entitling high economic loses for farmers. Local artisanal fisheries have proved the ability to mitigate escape events by recapturing escapees, but its effectiveness has always been questioned. However, the knowledge regarding the interaction of large scale escape events and local fisheries remains scant. The recapture dynamics of a massive escape of nearly 100 tones taking place in Western Mediterranean was analysed. The artisanal fishery showed efficient in recapturing escaped fish as 64.7% of the escaped biomass was recovered. The spatial distribution of escaped gilthead seabream along the shore was studied as well as the efficiency of the fishing fleet distinguishing between fishing gears. The recapture of escaped fish showed well correlated with the distance to the escape point. Moreover, a high recapture success (64.7%) was registered being fish traps (53.8%) more efficient in recovering escapees than nets (10.9%). Concluding, management implications and data-based measures to be implemented on further regulations of escape events are discussed.