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 Aus- tralian 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 high- resolution spatial data are unavailable. If SAR was ≤0.1, as in 8 of 24 regions, there was >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 con- sistently met international sustainability benchmarks for fish stocks, implying collateral environmental benefits from sustainable fishing.

Amoroso, R.o., Roland Pitcher, C., Rijnsdorp, A.d., Mcconnaughey, R.a., Parma, A.m., Suuronen, P., et al. (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 [10.1073/pnas.1802379115].

Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world’s continental shelves

Tommaso Russo;
2018-01-01

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 Aus- tralian 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 high- resolution spatial data are unavailable. If SAR was ≤0.1, as in 8 of 24 regions, there was >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 con- sistently met international sustainability benchmarks for fish stocks, implying collateral environmental benefits from sustainable fishing.
2018
Pubblicato
Rilevanza internazionale
Articolo
Esperti anonimi
Settore BIO/07 - ECOLOGIA
English
Con Impact Factor ISI
fisheries; effort; footprint; habitat; seabed
Funding for meetings of the study group and salary support for R.O.A. were provided by the following: David and Lucile Packard Foundation; the Walton Family Foundation; the Alaska Seafood Cooperative; American Seafoods Group US; Blumar Seafoods Denmark; Clearwater Seafoods Inc.; Espersen Group; Glacier Fish Company LLC US; Gortons Seafood; Inde- pendent Fisheries Limited N.Z.; Nippon Suisan (USA), Inc.; Pesca Chile S.A.; Pacific Andes International Holdings, Ltd.; San Arawa, S.A.; Sanford Ltd. N.Z.; Sealord Group Ltd. N.Z.; South African Trawling Association; Trident Seafoods; and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Additional funding to individual authors was provided by European Union Project BENTHIS EU-FP7 312088 (to A.D.R., O.R.E., F.B., N.T.H., L.B.-M., R.C., H.O.F., H.G., J.G.H., P.J., S.K., M.L., G.G.-M., N.P., P.E.P., T.R., A.S., B.V., and M.J.K.); the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, Portugal (C.S.); the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Science Fund (R.O.A. and K.M.H.); the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (C.R.P. and T.M.); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (R.A.M.); New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries Projects BEN2012/01 and DAE2010/ 04D (to S.J.B. and R.F.); the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Univer- sity of Tasmania and the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Tasmania, Australia (J.M.S.); and UK Department of Environ- ment, Food and Rural Affairs Project MF1225 (to S.J.).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30297399
Amoroso, R.o., Roland Pitcher, C., Rijnsdorp, A.d., Mcconnaughey, R.a., Parma, A.m., Suuronen, P., et al. (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 [10.1073/pnas.1802379115].
Amoroso, Ro; Roland Pitcher, C; Rijnsdorp, Ad; Mcconnaughey, Ra; Parma, Am; Suuronen, P; Eigaard, Or; Bastardie, F; Hintzen, Nt; Althaus, F; Jane Baird, S; Black, J; Buhl-Mortensen, L; Campbell, Ab; Catarino, R; Collie, J; H. Cowan Jr., J; Durholtz, D; Engstrom, N; Fairweather, Tp; Fock, Ho; Ford, R; Gálvez, Pa; Gerritsen, H; Eva Góngora, M; González, Ja; Hiddink, Jg; Hughes, Km; Intelmann, Ss; Jenkins, C; Jonsson, P; Kainge, P; Kangas, M; Kathena, Jn; Kavadas, S; Leslie, Rw; Lewis, Sg; Lundy, M; Makin, D; Martin, J; Mazor, T; Gonzalez-Mirelis, G; Newman, Sj; Papadopoulou, N; Posen, Pe; Rochester, W; Russo, T; Sala, A; Semmens, Jm; Silva, C; Tsolos, A; Vanelslander, B; Wakefield, Cb; Wood, Ba; Hilborn, R; Kaiser, Mj; Simon Jennings, A
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2108/241141
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