Researchers report estimates of bottom trawl-fishing footprints around the world. The extent of bottom trawl fishing and its environmental impact are often debated. However, trawling extent has been neither quantified at high resolution based on high coverage data nor compared across continents. Ricardo Amoroso and colleagues obtained high-resolution vessel position data for bottom trawling vessels in 24 regions around five continents. The authors used the data to estimate the trawling footprint--the proportion of seabed area trawled at least once during the time-period spanned by the data--on continental shelves and slopes up to 1,000 m in depth. The estimated footprint varied considerably among regions, ranging from 10% or less in Australia, New Zealand, and American Pacific waters to greater than 80% in the Adriatic Sea. The authors found a strong empirical relationship between the total footprint and a simple metric of trawling intensity, which can be calculated from the time spent trawling and properties of vessels and gear but without detailed spatial information. Therefore, this relationship allows the trawling footprint to be estimated for regions where high-resolution vessel position data are not available. The smallest trawling footprints tended to occur in regions that consistently met international benchmarks for sustainable fishing rates. The latter finding suggests that sustainable fisheries management may provide collateral environmental benefits in the form of reduced trawling footprints, according to the authors.
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Article #18-02379: "Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world's continental shelves," by Ricardo O. Amoroso et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Ricardo O. Amoroso, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; e-mail: ramoroso@uw.edu; Michelle Ma, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; tel: 206-543-2580; e-mail: mcma@uw.edu
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences