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131141 - Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world's continental shelves.pdf (1.14 MB)

Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world's continental shelves

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posted on 2023-05-20, 01:23 authored by Amoroso, RO, Pitcher, CR, Rijnsdorp, AD, McConnaughey, RA, Parma, AM, Suuronen, P, Eigaard, OR, Bastardie, F, Hintzen, NT, Althaus, F, Baird, SJ, Black, J, Buhl-Mortensen, L, Campbell, AB, Catarino, R, Collie, J, Cowan, JH, Durholtz, D, Engstrom, N, Fairweather, TP, Fock, HO, Ford, R, Galvez, PA, Gerritsen, H, Gongora, ME, Gonzalez, JA, Hiddink, JG, Hughes, KM, Intelmann, SS, Jenkins, C, Jonsson, P, Kainge, P, Kangas, M, Kathena, JN, Kavadas, S, Leslie, RW, Lewise, SG, Lundy, M, Makin, D, Martin, J, Mazor, T, Gonzalez-Mirelis, G, Newman, SJ, Papadopoulou, N, Posen, PE, Rochester, W, Russo, T, Sala, A, Jayson SemmensJayson Semmens, Silva, C, Tsoloso, A, Vanelslander, B, Wakefield, CB, Wood, BA, Hilborn, R, Kaiser, MJ, Jennings, S
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 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 consistently met international sustainability benchmarks for fish stocks, implying collateral environmental benefits from sustainable fishing.

Funding

Fisheries Research & Development Corporation

History

Publication title

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Volume

115

Issue

43

Pagination

E10275-E10282

ISSN

0027-8424

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Natl Acad Sciences

Place of publication

2101 Constitution Ave Nw, Washington, USA, Dc, 20418

Rights statement

Copyright 2018 The Authors. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Assessment and management of terrestrial ecosystems

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