LANDEAU – Brusc Lagoon (France)
Context
The Brusc lagoon (Var) is considered as a potential good nursery area for young stages of fish, due to its configuration and the presence of a Cymodoce herbarium. The LANDEAU project aims to confirm this hypothesis, through three actions:
1) An inventory of the existing diversity of post-larvae in the lagoon using two different techniques: the crest net (manufactured by Ecocean and already used in Polynesia) and light attractors CARE® (designed and manufactured by the company Ecocean).
2) Post-larvae capture and rearing in order to release them on their natural habitat and thus enhance the populations of the herbarium.
3) The monitoring of these recruits in natural sea grass bed, restored by transplantation or using micro-habitats. These last two solutions are developed by SM² Solutions Marines.
Interest & Objectives
Besides a contribution to the identification of post-larval fish, the expected results should provide an understanding of the important role that the lagoon of Brusc plays as a nursery site, compared with various sites around Embiez Island. Because of the degradation of the Cymodocea sea grass beds in the lagoon, the ecological restoration by transplantation of sea grass and key fish species will allow an estimation of the potential for improving ecosystem function.
• Technical innovation: The use of an innovative technique never applied in the Mediterranean Sea (Crest nets) allows the capture of species other than those that are photosensitive.
• Ecological innovation: The combination of post-larval capture & restocking with restoration of sea grass has never been performed before.
R&D works
• Two crest nets has been installed on the two channels that connect the lagoon with the sea. The nets collect a flow on one meter width by 70 cm depth. There are six nights of fishing per month over a period of six months (from April to September).
• For the light trap CARE®, eight sites have been chosen, the fishing is done at the same time as the crest nets.
• The identification and the breeding are performed in the facilities of the Paul Ricard Institute, located in border of the lagoon.
• The monitoring of the populations of the young recruits of fish is lead on five zones with three replicates of 1 m² among which two restored zones and three natural zones.
Expected impacts and benefits
• New knowledge about the dynamics of coastal fish populations. This might help local fisheries that are an economic and cultural asset of the PACA region.
• Potential for application in other shoreline areas
• Patent on the new processes of ecological restoration.
Téléchargement
LANDEAU
The Brusc lagoon (Var) is considered as a potential good nursery area for young stages of fish, due to its configuration and the presence of a Cymodoce herbarium. The LANDEAU project aims to confirm this hypothesis, through three actions:
1) An inventory of the existing diversity of post-larvae in the lagoon using two different techniques: the crest net (manufactured by Ecocean and already used in Polynesia) and light attractors CARE® (designed and manufactured by the company Ecocean).
2) Post-larvae capture and rearing in order to release them on their natural habitat and thus enhance the populations of the herbarium.
3) The monitoring of these recruits in natural sea grass bed, restored by transplantation or using micro-habitats. These last two solutions are developed by SM² Solutions Marines.
