Fisheries Research Articles
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-18-2018
Journal Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
ISSN
Print: 0027-8424 Electronic: 1091-6490
Keywords
fisheries, effort, footprint, habitat, seabed
Disciplines
Aquaculture and Fisheries
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 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.
Recommended Citation
Amoroso, R O,
Roland Pitcher, C,
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 Jr., J H,
Durholtz, D,
Engstrom, N,
Fairweather, T P,
Fock, H O,
Ford, R,
Galvez, P A,
Gerritsen, H,
Gongora, M E,
Gonzalez, J A,
Hiddink, J G,
Hughes, K M,
Intelmann, S S,
Jenkins, C,
Jonsson, P,
Kainge, P,
Kangas, M I,
Kathena, J N,
Kavadas, S,
Leslie, R W,
Lewis, S G,
Lundy, M,
Makin, D,
Martin, J,
Mazor, T,
Gonzalez-Mirelis, G,
Newman, S J,
Papadopoulou, N,
Posen, P E,
Rochester, W,
Russo, T,
Sala, A,
Semmens, J M,
Silva, C,
Tsolos, 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 (PNAS), 115 (43), E10275-E10282.
https://library.dpird.wa.gov.au/fr_fja/295
