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Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world's continental shelves

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Amoroso, R. O., Pitcher, C. R., Rijnsdorp, A. D., McConnaughey, R. A., Parma, A. M., Suuronen, P., Eigaard, O. R., Bastardie, F., Hintzen, N. T., Althaus, F., Baird, S. J., Black, J., Buhl-Mortensen, L., Campbell, A. B., Catarino, R., Collie, J., Cowan, J. H., Durholtz, D., Engstrom, N., Fairweather, T. P., Fock, H. O., Ford, R., Gálvez, P. A., Gerritsen, H., Góngora, M. E., González, J. A., Hiddink, J. G., Hughes, K. M., Intelmann, S. S., Jenkins, C., Jonsson, P., Kainge, P., Kangas, M., Kathena, J. N., Kavadas, S., Leslie, R. W., Lewise, S. G., Lundy, M., Makin, D., Martin, J., Mazor, T., Gonzalez-Mirelis, G., Newman, S. J., Papadopoulou, N., Posen, P. E., Rochester, W., Russok, T., Salal, A., Semmens, J. M., Silvan, C., Tsoloso, A., Vanelslander, B., Wakefield, C. B., Wood, B. A., Hilborn, R., Kaiser, M. J. and Jennings, S. (2018) Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world's continental shelves. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115 (43). E10275-E10282. ISSN 00278424 (ISSN)

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Article Link: http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1802379115

Publisher URL: https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/115/43/E10275.full.pdf

Abstract

Bottom trawlers land around 19 million tons of fish and invertebrates annually, almost one-quarter of wild marine landings. The extent of bottom trawling footprint (seabed area trawled at least once in a specified region and time period) is often contested but poorly described. We quantify footprints using high-resolution satellite vessel monitoring system (VMS) and logbook data on 24 continental shelves and slopes to 1,000-m depth over at least 2 years. Trawling footprint varied markedly among regions: from < 10% of seabed area in Australian and New Zealand waters, the Aleutian Islands, East Bering Sea, South Chile, and Gulf of Alaska to > 50% in some European seas. Overall, 14% of the 7.8 million-km2 study area was trawled, and 86% was not trawled. Trawling activity was aggregated; the most intensively trawled areas accounting for 90% of activity comprised 77% of footprint on average. Regional swept area ratio (SAR; ratio of total swept area trawled annually to total area of region, a metric of trawling intensity) and footprint area were related, providing an approach to estimate regional trawling footprints when highresolution spatial data are unavailable. If SAR was =0.1, as in 8 of 24 regions, therewas > 95% probability that > 90%of seabed was not trawled. If SAR was 7.9, equal to the highest SAR recorded, there was > 95% probability that >70% of seabed was trawled. Footprints were smaller and SAR was =0.25 in regions where fishing rates consistently met international sustainability benchmarks for fish stocks, implying collateral environmental benefits from sustainable fishing. © 2018 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Item Type:Article
Business groups:Animal Science
Keywords:Effort Fisheries Footprint Habitat Seabed article Bering Sea Chile continental shelf fish stock fishery fishing Gulf of Alaska invertebrate monitoring New Zealand nonhuman probability ship
Subjects:Aquaculture and Fisheries > Fisheries > Fishery conservation
Aquaculture and Fisheries > Fisheries > Fishery management. Fishery policy
Aquaculture and Fisheries > Fisheries > Fishery research
Aquaculture and Fisheries > Fisheries > Fishery technology
Live Archive:05 Mar 2019 03:55
Last Modified:03 Sep 2021 16:44

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