{"id":7652,"date":"2026-08-05T10:22:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bluefarmenvironment.com\/?p=7652"},"modified":"2026-08-05T10:22:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:22:42","slug":"salp-adriatic-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bluefarmenvironment.com\/en\/2026\/08\/05\/salp-adriatic-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Salp Adriatic Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Massive salp colonies are invading the Northern Adriatic<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In early July, an article on a local newspaper[1]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0attracted the attention of Bluefarm. The article , based on an interview with Alessandro Ferro, the President of the fishermen cooperative \u201cPilamare\u201d, described the unprecedented occurrence of the massive presence of \u201cgelatinous organisms\u201d in the fishery area targeted by Pilamare operators, see Fig. 1.<\/p>\n

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Fig. 1<\/em><\/strong>. Fishery area targeted by Cooperativa Pilamare fishermen.<\/em><\/p>\n

The biomass was so high and the presence so widespread the fishermen decided to stop fishing small pelagics, e.g. sardines and anchovies, as the nets were either clogged or broken. The sea wallnut (Mnemiopsis leidyi<\/em>), one of the Non-indigenous Invasive Species investigated in the ALIENA project, was mentioned as one of the species accounting for to the gelatinous biomass: therefore Bluefarm researchers approached Alessandro and met him and the fishermen operators in Pila on July 13th.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Evidence of the presence of gelatinonous macrozooplaancton presented by the fishermen were impressive but a quick look at collected samples revealed that, this time, the sea walnut was not the culprit: what forced to stop the fishery activity was the massive presence of a salp species<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Fig. 2<\/em><\/strong>. Salp samples collected by Pilamare fishermen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Salps are cosmopolitan but are relatively uncommon in the Adriatic: they are filter feeders which feed on phytoplankton and could form large colonies when food is abundant.<\/p>\n