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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1380484

Territorial and occupancy behavior of black sea bass on oyster aquaculture gear and boulder habitat

Provisionally accepted
Adam D. Armbruster Adam D. Armbruster 1*Renee Mercaldo-Allen Renee Mercaldo-Allen 2Julie M. Rose Julie M. Rose 2Kristen Seda Kristen Seda 3Paul Clark Paul Clark 2Gillian Phillips Gillian Phillips 4Dylan Redman Dylan Redman 2Christian W. Conroy Christian W. Conroy 1*
  • 1 University of New Haven, West Haven, Connecticut, United States
  • 2 Milford Laboratory, Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NOAA), Milford, Connecticut, United States
  • 3 Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
  • 4 A.I.S. Inc., North Dartmouth, MA 02747, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Observations of fish behavior can provide insights into habitat preferences and use. Black sea bass, Centropristis striata, are a territorial temperate reef finfish species known for their high commercial and recreational value and association with structured habitat. We used underwater action cameras to record video of black sea bass to assess territorial (agonistic, ambush, displacement) and occupancy (station-keeping) behaviors on shelf and bag style oyster aquaculture cages at a shellfish farm, and on boulders at a natural rock reef near Milford, Connecticut in Long Island Sound, Northwest Atlantic. Black sea bass at a variety of life stages were highly associated with cages, including young-of-the-year, and age 1+ fish. The high abundance of black sea bass observed on cages relative to boulders suggests this species has an affinity for the vertical structure created by aquaculture gear. When behaviors were normalized to the total fish sightings, black sea bass showed no significant difference in frequency of behaviors between habitats, indicating that per-fish rates of behavior were similar on cages and boulders. Demonstration of territorial and occupancy behaviors by black sea bass on, and around cages suggests that aquaculture gear provides structured habitat and ecosystem services for this species similar to natural reefs.These results suggest that essential fish habitat descriptions of manmade structures used by black sea bass could be broadened to include aquaculture gear. Our study provides novel information on behavioral interactions of black sea bass with oyster cages that may support aquaculture permitting and consultation processes.

    Keywords: Black Sea bass, Agonistic Behavior, oyster aquaculture cages, rock reef, Occupancy behavior

    Received: 13 Feb 2024; Accepted: 31 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Armbruster, Mercaldo-Allen, Rose, Seda, Clark, Phillips, Redman and Conroy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Adam D. Armbruster, University of New Haven, West Haven, 06516, Connecticut, United States
    Christian W. Conroy, University of New Haven, West Haven, 06516, Connecticut, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.