FishNess project

FishNess is a case study on the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, which supports an important fishery and is also a major species in Mediterranean cage mariculture. The seabass has three genetically distinct populations over its geographic range, occupying the Atlantic (AT), Western Mediterranean (WM), and Eastern Mediterranean (EM). These provide a context to investigate intraspecific variation in robustness; human induced rapid environmental change may differentially affect the populations in the wild or in cages, with consequences for population dynamics and aquaculture productivity. FishNess investigates the hypothesis that individual robustness to environmental conditions is a key determinant of the vulnerability of wild fish populations to global change and fishing, and of the long-term sustainability of fish farming