Journal article
Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world's continental shelves
University of Washington1
Institute of Marine Research2
University of Queensland3
Marine Scotland Science4
University of Rhode Island5
Louisiana State University6
Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries7
Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry8
Johann Heinrich von Thunen Institute9
Ministry for Primary Industries10
Insitituto de Fomento Pesquero11
CSIRO12
Marine Institute13
Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco14
Bangor University15
University of Colorado Boulder16
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences17
Section for Monitoring and Data, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark18
Government of Western Australia19
Section for Marine Living Resources, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark20
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research21
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute22
Wageningen University & Research23
Department of Primary Industries, Queensland24
Cefas Weymouth Laboratory25
University of Rome Tor Vergata26
National Research Council of Italy27
University of Tasmania28
The Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere29
South Australian Research and Development Institute30
Research Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries31
NIWA32
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea33
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration34
The National Scientific and Technical Research Council35
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations36
National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark37
Section for Ecosystem based Marine Management, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark38
Technical University of Denmark39
...and 29 moreBottom 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 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.
| Language: | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | National Academy of Sciences |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Pages: | E10275-E10282 |
| ISSN: | 10916490 and 00278424 |
| Types: | Journal article |
| DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.1802379115 |
| ORCIDs: | 0000-0003-2890-5349 , 0000-0003-2075-4347 , 0000-0003-0785-9662 , Eigaard, Ole Ritzau , 0000-0002-5336-4612 , 0000-0003-0783-0528 , 0000-0002-5493-6862 , 0000-0001-7151-5501 , 0000-0002-4251-868X , 0000-0003-3689-1020 , 0000-0001-7114-830X , 0000-0001-7476-8723 , 0000-0003-4498-9845 , 0000-0002-5154-5583 , 0000-0003-4047-959X , 0000-0001-7066-1152 , 0000-0003-2326-2305 , 0000-0002-2390-7225 and Bastardie, Francois |
