Journal article
Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world’s continental shelves
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
2018
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.
Details
- Title
- Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world’s continental shelves
- Authors/Creators
- R.O. Amoroso (Author/Creator) - University of WashingtonC.R. Pitcher (Author/Creator)A.D. Rijnsdorp (Author/Creator) - Wageningen University & ResearchR.A. McConnaughey (Author/Creator) - National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationA.M. Parma (Author/Creator) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y TécnicasP. Suuronen (Author/Creator) - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsO.R. Eigaard (Author/Creator) - Technical University of DenmarkF. Bastardie (Author/Creator) - Technical University of DenmarkN.T. Hintzen (Author/Creator) - Wageningen University & ResearchF. Althaus (Author/Creator) - Hobart CorporationS.J. Baird (Author/Creator) - National Institute of Water and Atmospheric ResearchJ. Black (Author/Creator) - GNS ScienceL. Buhl-Mortensen (Author/Creator)A.B. Campbell (Author/Creator) - The University of QueenslandR. Catarino (Author/Creator)J. Collie (Author/Creator) - University of Rhode IslandJ.H. Cowan (Author/Creator) - Louisiana State UniversityD. Durholtz (Author/Creator) - Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural DevelopmentN. Engstrom (Author/Creator) - Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and ForestryT.P. Fairweather (Author/Creator) - Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural DevelopmentH.O. Fock (Author/Creator)R. Ford (Author/Creator)P.A. Gálvez (Author/Creator)H. Gerritsen (Author/Creator) - Memorial University of NewfoundlandM.E. Góngora (Author/Creator) - National University of Patagonia San Juan BoscoJ.A. González (Author/Creator)J.G. Hiddink (Author/Creator) - Bangor UniversityK.M. Hughes (Author/Creator) - Bangor UniversityS.S. Intelmann (Author/Creator) - National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationC. Jenkins (Author/Creator) - Institute of Arctic and Alpine ResearchP. Jonsson (Author/Creator) - Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesP. Kainge (Author/Creator)M. Kangas (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaJ.N. Kathena (Author/Creator)S. Kavadas (Author/Creator)R.W. Leslie (Author/Creator) - Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural DevelopmentS.G. Lewis (Author/Creator) - National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationM. Lundy (Author/Creator)D. Makin (Author/Creator) - New South Wales Department of Primary IndustriesJ. Martin (Author/Creator)T. Mazor (Author/Creator) - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research OrganisationG. Gonzalez-Mirelis (Author/Creator)S.J. Newman (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaN. Papadopoulou (Author/Creator)P.E. Posen (Author/Creator) - Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture ScienceW. Rochester (Author/Creator) - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research OrganisationT. Russo (Author/Creator) - University of Rome Tor VergataA. Sala (Author/Creator)J.M. Semmens (Author/Creator) - University of TasmaniaC. Silva (Author/Creator) - Instituto Português do Mar e da AtmosferaA. Tsolos (Author/Creator) - South Australian Research and Development InstituteB. Vanelslander (Author/Creator)C.B. Wakefield (Author/Creator) - Government of Western AustraliaB.A. Wood (Author/Creator) - National Institute of Water and Atmospheric ResearchR. Hilborn (Author/Creator) - University of WashingtonM.J. Kaiser (Author/Creator) - Bangor UniversityS. Jennings (Author/Creator) - University of East Anglia
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- PNAS
- Identifiers
- 991005542675807891
- Copyright
- © 2018 the Author(s)
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Murdoch University
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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- Citation topics
- 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
- 3.2 Marine Biology
- 3.2.92 Fisheries Ecology
- Web Of Science research areas
- Fisheries
- ESI research areas
- Plant & Animal Science