Polyculture as a tool to increase the economic income: A study case in the Gulf of Castellammare

Polyculture is a practice involving integration between organisms of different trophic levels (i.e. fish with low-trophic-level organism like molluscs and/or algae). This paper, reporting on a field experiment carried out during 2004 in the Gulf of Castellammare (South Tyrrhenian), showed that mussels transplanted in areas under fish farm influence grew up better than mussels transplanted far from fish farm. Thus, results pointed out polyculture as a reliable tool for i) increasing local bivalve production, ii) obtaining the reduction of importation from other countries and iii) increasing the environmental sustainability of fish aquaculture.