Performance of a shipwreck as an artificial fish habitat along Goa, west coast of India

Abstract

The objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that submerged shipwrecks along the western coast of India can function as artificial fish habitats with trophic structure of fish assemblages similar to natural rocky reef habitats.The fish assemblages on shipwreck and natural reefs were analysed from September 2013 to December 2016 using diver assisted underwater visual census (UVC). Data collected on fish assemblages were used to compare the fish trophic structure between shipwreck and natural reefs using diversity indices, permutational multivariate analysis of variance and similarity percentage analysis.Fish abundance was two times greater on shipwreck than on natural reefs and the major trophic guilds on shipwreck were omnivores and carnivores. Multivariate analyses showed a distinct fish trophic structure on shipwreck from that of natural reefs and certain fish species differentiated the trophic structure of shipwreck from natural reefs. The high densities of Pomadasys furcatus, P. guoraca, Pempheris multiradiata, Lutjanus indicus, L. fulvus, Ostorhinchus compressus,, Epinephelus coioides, E. erythrurus, Monodactylus argenteus and Heniochus singularis contributed significantly to the average dissimilarity for fish assemblages in shipwreck from natural reefs. This has helped to differentiate the fish communities on shipwreck from natural reefs. This study showed that shipwreck and n a t u r a l r e e f s d i f f e r significantly in fish trophic structure. Fish species richness and abundance were significantly higher on shipwreck than natural reefs. Therefore, the Greater species richness, abundance and diversity of fish communities on shipwreck could be a result of unique, complex and heterogeneous habitat features existing within the wreck.

No effect of nearby natural reef existence on fish assemblages at shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea

“…The war wrecks are a great challenge to work with, because of their random depths and distances from the coast (Sinopoli et al ., 2015). There are limited fish community studies on such accidental wrecks, in which ROVs (Consoli et al ., 2014; Sinopoli et al ., 2015) and visual census methods were used (Simon et al ., 2013; Sreekanth et al ., 2019). In the Mediterranean Sea, while the fish community studies were mostly conducted with artificial reefs (ARs) such as concrete blocks, pipes and fuel-gas platforms (Charbonnel et al ., 2002; Fabi et al ., 2002; 2004; Lök et al ., 2008; Andaloro et al ., 2011; Gül et al ., 2011; Scarcella et al ., 2011; Consoli et al ., 2013), there was little interest in the artificial wrecks reefs (AWRs) (Simon et al ., 2013; Acarlı et al ., 2020).…”

“…Most of the former studies indicated that fish abundance and/or biomass values at ARs are higher than at natural rocky reefs (NRs) and soft sandy bottoms (SBs) (Honório et al ., 2010; Fagundes-Netto et al ., 2011; Coelho et al ., 2012; Simon et al ., 2013; Consoli et al ., 2014; Ross et al ., 2015; Sreekanth et al ., 2019). Scientists have found that fish communities had differences at a regional and local scale affected by currents (Fulton & Bellwood, 2004), depth (Malcolm et al ., 2011), habitat type (Anderson & Millar, 2004), bottom structure (Grober Dunsmore et al ., 2008; Schultz et al ., 2012) and topographic complexities (Walker et al ., 2009).…”