Mariculture can offer an opportunity to meet the global demand for sustainable food sources. The SYMAPA project aimed to optimise the mariculture installation to enhance production and to investigate possible synergies with passive fisheries in the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS). This thesis operated within the SYMAPA framework and aimed to assess the impact of the mussel longlines on the surrounding sediment, macrobenthic communities and mobile epifauna. Furthermore, we characterised the macrobenthic communities in the Belgian Westcoast area, to establish a baseline for future monitoring campaigns. Control and impact samples had a similar species composition prior to the study but formed separate clusters after one year of mariculture. Significant differences were observed for mud content, Total Organic Carbon and median grain size between the two separate years. Both these differences are possibly caused by annual variabilities in mobile mud layers. Mussel reef formation was not visible in the video footage. A higher abundance and biodiversity of mobile epifauna was reported in the impact site. Long-term monitoring, increased sampling effort and a balanced design are suggested recommendations to assess the impacts of future mariculture projects in the BPNS.
Managing Thesis and Internship Exchanges
