Biofouling Community Development on Commercial Cage Nets Submerged in a Cage Aquaculture Facility in the Red Sea

Abstract

The colonization of biofouling organisms is a significant problem for the aquaculture installations which affect the economy of the fish farms and wellbeing of the cultured fish. In this study, the colonization of biofouling organisms on cage aquaculture nets submerged near to the existing floating cages was analysed for a period of one year from June 2017 to May 2018. Cage net panels were fitted onto an iron frame and submerged at 1 m depth near to existing aquaculture cages. The biofouling organisms found on the panels mainly consisted of macroalgae, bivalves, bryozoans, hydrozoans and ascidians. Some other epifauna like brittle stars, polychaetes, amphipods, crabs, gastropods were also occurred more occasionally on the nets. Recruitment of green algae and brown algae were observed from the first month of net panel exposure. Bivalves and ascidians were developed from the second month. Hydrozoans and bryozoans appeared on the nets after 7 months of panel deployment. Results also revealed that ascidians and bivalves were the dominant fouling organisms in most of the sampling months during this study period.