A global study of the impacts of bottom trawling reports undertaken by Bangor University with collaborating research institutes and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, builds on recent international collaboration. It brings together data from 24 large marine regions around the world to establish a relationship between distribution and intensity of trawling activities and the health of seafloor communities.

Researchers assessed life on the seabed, ascribing a status score between 0 and 1, where 0 is impacted and 1 is unimpacted. Fifteen regions studied were in a good condition with a status greater than 0.9. Three European regions (North Sea, west of Iberia and Skagerrak-Kattegat) had a degraded status of less than 0.7 and the lowest grading of 0.25 was in the Adriatic Sea. In all regions combined, 1.5% of all seabed areas studied were in a very poor condition with a status of 0.

The study’s lead author, marine scientist Dr Roland Pitcher of CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere in Brisbane, said that the study shows that good management of fisheries contributes to better outcomes for the broader ecosystem. “The results show that effectively managed and sustainable trawl fisheries are associated with regions having high seabed status of 0.95 or more.

“Regions that had low seabed status scores were places where fish stocks typically are over-exploited and have ineffective management regimes.

“Detailed data were not available for all jurisdictions where bottom trawling occurs, but importantly, this study provides the world’s first statistics to estimate the impact of global trawling and provides an evidence base to inform effective improvements to trawling practices worldwide.”

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