Ground-breaking fishing research projects given funding boost: 17 projects awarded funds from major £100m investment to research sustainable fisheries practices. Funding awarded to Bangor University to research the impact of towed fishing gear – such as scallop dredging and beam trawling – on blue carbon in seabed sediments.

Project aims

Seabed sediments are one of the largest stores of carbon. Recent studies have raised the alarm over the impacts of mobile-bottom gears on sediment carbon, suggesting that disturbance by mobile bottom gears lead to carbon emission equivalent to global aviation. In response, there have been calls to ban all mobile bottom gears. These claims are however disputed and likely to be overestimated by one-to-two orders-of-magnitude, but have nevertheless highlighted that our understanding of the effect of trawling on seabed blue carbon is limited. This project aims to fill this knowledge gap by quantifying the impacts of two widely-used mobile fishing gears on sediment carbon stores.

Action

This is a collaboration between Bangor University, Imperial College London, the Western Fish Producers’ Organisation, the South Western Fish Producers’ Organisation and CEFAS. The project will determine the effect of scallop dredging and beam trawling on seabed carbon stocks and resuspended carbon, by carrying out experimental fishing at different intensities on the grounds that these fisheries typically exploit, and sampling before and after fishing.

Expected outcome

These estimates provide a greater understanding of how mobile bottom gears affect blue carbon in seabed sediments that is essential to inform the consideration in the designation of MPAs and avoid disproportionate restriction on the fishing industry that may be driven by previous unrealistic projections. It will inform potential changes in practices by the fishing industry as well as policy makers.

The news release can be read here and further information on the project can be found here.