The first step towards coexistence and co-prosperity of bluefin tuna farm and natural coral

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Many beautiful corals are living on the ropes of tuna cages in Amami Experimental Station of Kinki University. This suggests that the appropriate aquaculture activities would be done in this area. Such co-existence between aquaculture and coral is very rare in the world. In this study, we focused on the ecological functions of marine bacteria and coral mucus as the first step to understand the wonderful balance of the ecosystem. The mucus was collected from Acropora sp. which was a dominant species on ropes of the tuna cages. Bacterial abundance in the “mucus+seawater” sample during 10-h-incubation increased, while that in the seawater sample (control) was lower and constant. Bacterial composition changed drastically in the “mucus+seawater “ sample, but not in the seawater sample.