TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of electrical pulse stimulation on behaviour and survival of marine benthic invertebrates
AU - Boute, Pim G.
AU - Soetaert, Maarten
AU - Reid Navarro, José A.
AU - Lankheet, Martin J.
N1 - Data availability statement:
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Author contributions:
All authors contributed to the conception and design ofthe study. PB and JR performed the measurements with live animals. ML programmed and executed the tracking procedure. PB, JR, and ML collected the data, either by scoring real-time or from the video images. PB performed the statistical analyses and drafted the initial manuscript and figures, with contributions by MS, JR, and ML. All authors interpreted the data, discussed the results, contributed to the critical revision of the manuscript and figures, and approved the final version.
Funding:
The authors declare that this study received funding from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality via the Impact Assessment Pulsetrawl Fishery project (contract number 1300021172). This research project is funded through the Dutch component of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund of the European Union. The funding bodies were neither involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, and writing of this article nor in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Acknowledgements:
We thank the following people for their valuable contributions: crew and cruise participants of the RV Belgica and RV Simon Stevin for collecting experimental animals; Remco P.M. Pieters and Kas Koenraads for technical support; Mattias Van Opstal for technical assistance and advice; David Vuylsteke for technical support and animal caretaking; Laura Lemey and Rens Hensgens for assistance during monitoring of animal survival; Andres Hagmayer for advice and support with the statistical analyses; Hans Polet for enabling and facilitating experimentation at ILVO; Johan L. van Leeuwen for supervision and feedback on the manuscript. We thank the CARUS Aquatic Research Facility of Wageningen University for making available experimental equipment.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars. 2020.592650/full#supplementary-material.
Supplementary Material 1 | Feeding of experimental animals.
Supplementary Material 2 | Body mass and length measurements.
Supplementary Material 3 | Example of activity measurements for crustaceans. Supplementary Material 4 | The survival experiment.
Supplementary Material 5 | Statistical methods and output of behavioural measurements.
Supplementary Material 6 | Statistical methods and output of survival measurements
Conflict of interest:
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
PY - 2021/2/11
Y1 - 2021/2/11
N2 - Electrical pulse trawling is an alternative to conventional beam trawling for common sole (Solea solea), with the potential for higher revenues and less impact on the marine ecosystem. Concerns exist, however, that benthic invertebrates might be seriously affected by pulse fishing. Even if direct injuries and mortality were limited, changes in behaviour might compromise their survival, with potentially large impacts on food webs. Here, we investigate effects of electrical pulses on locomotion behaviour and 14-days survival of six invertebrate species from four phyla that may encounter pulse fishing gears. Electrical stimulation consisted of a Pulsed Bipolar Current at 200 V m–1, 30 Hz, 0.33 ms pulse width, and 3 s duration. We quantified species-specific behaviours before, during, and after electrical stimulation and compared these to a non-exposed control group. Responses during stimulation varied from no visible effect (echinoderms) to squirming (sea mouse) and retractions (whelk and crustaceans). Within 30 s after stimulation, all animals resumed normal behavioural patterns, without signs of lasting immobilisation. Starfish, serpent star, whelk and sea mouse showed no change in movement patterns after stimulation, whereas flying crab and hermit crab showed significant changes in activity that were indicative of increased shelter behaviour. For none of the species, survival at 14-days after stimulation was negatively affected. These findings suggest that changes in locomotion behaviour due to electrical stimulation as used in pulse trawling are unlikely to substantially compromise survival of the investigated species.
AB - Electrical pulse trawling is an alternative to conventional beam trawling for common sole (Solea solea), with the potential for higher revenues and less impact on the marine ecosystem. Concerns exist, however, that benthic invertebrates might be seriously affected by pulse fishing. Even if direct injuries and mortality were limited, changes in behaviour might compromise their survival, with potentially large impacts on food webs. Here, we investigate effects of electrical pulses on locomotion behaviour and 14-days survival of six invertebrate species from four phyla that may encounter pulse fishing gears. Electrical stimulation consisted of a Pulsed Bipolar Current at 200 V m–1, 30 Hz, 0.33 ms pulse width, and 3 s duration. We quantified species-specific behaviours before, during, and after electrical stimulation and compared these to a non-exposed control group. Responses during stimulation varied from no visible effect (echinoderms) to squirming (sea mouse) and retractions (whelk and crustaceans). Within 30 s after stimulation, all animals resumed normal behavioural patterns, without signs of lasting immobilisation. Starfish, serpent star, whelk and sea mouse showed no change in movement patterns after stimulation, whereas flying crab and hermit crab showed significant changes in activity that were indicative of increased shelter behaviour. For none of the species, survival at 14-days after stimulation was negatively affected. These findings suggest that changes in locomotion behaviour due to electrical stimulation as used in pulse trawling are unlikely to substantially compromise survival of the investigated species.
KW - animal behaviour
KW - benthic impact
KW - bycatch species
KW - electrical pulse fishing
KW - locomotion activity
KW - mortality
KW - North Sea
KW - righting reflex
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101721251&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fmars.2020.592650
DO - 10.3389/fmars.2020.592650
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85101721251
VL - 7
JO - Frontiers in Marine Science
JF - Frontiers in Marine Science
M1 - 592650
ER -