Hydrography of four Mediterranean marine cage sites

Measurements of current speed and direction were made at three marine cage farms in Greece and one in Mediterranean Spain. At two sites where contemporaneous wind measurements were made, current velocity was correlated with wind velocity. It appears that for each of the sites in Greece, at the time of measurement, the wind was the most important driver of water movements. However, at the Spanish site, current speeds were around 10% of the wind speed in the residual flow direction, indicating that the wind was not the only driver of water movements. Mean current speed ranged from 1.2 to 9.1 cm/s, therefore being within the typical range of mean current speeds experienced at tidal North Atlantic fish culture sites. Mediterranean sites differ from Atlantic sites in terms of temperature and salinity but may possess broadly similar surface flow regimens despite lacking macro-tidal forcing.