Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world’s continental shelves
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.; 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.; 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.; 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 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 - Articolo in rivista
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Online) 115 (2018): E10275–E10282. doi:10.1073/pnas.1802379115
Keywords: fisheries; effort; footprint; habitat; seabed