Impacts of shrimp culture on water quality and some biological aspects of barnacle, Amphibalanus amphitrite (Darwin, 1854) and oyster, Saccostrea cucullata (Born, 1778)

Aquaculture industry has substantially grown during the last decades. The remarkable growth of aquaculture in general and shrimp culture in particular has resulted in introduction of high load of organic and inorganic pollutants to the ecosystems adjacent to culture sites. In the present study, impacts of the shrimp culture in Shif shrimp culture site, in Bushehr province, on water quality and some biological characteristics of Amphibalanus amphitrite and Saccostrea cucullata were studied during culture season in 2016. Shrimp culture process caused significant changes in temperature, salinity, total ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen, total phosphorus and chlorophyll a concentration. The high concentration of nutrients and thus food availability has, apparently, caused an increase in A. amphitrite density and the average length and weight of both A. amphitrite and S. cucullata that were exposed to the farm effluents. Management strategies such as bioremediation should be applied to reduce the adverse environmental effects of shrimp culture sites on their adjacent ecosystems.