Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

ORCID

0000-0002-8296-4780

ResearcherID

J-3058-2014

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Current Biology

ISSN

0960-9822

Publication Date

9-21-2015

Abstract

The deep sea is the world’s largest ecosystem, with high levels of biodiversity and many species that exhibit life-history characteristics thatmake them vulnerable to high levels of exploitation. Many fisheries in the deep sea have a track record of being unsustainable. In the northeast Atlantic, there has been a decline in the abundance of commercial fish species since deep-sea fishing commenced in the 1970s. Current management is by effort restrictions and total allowable catch (TAC), but there remain problems with compliance and high levels of bycatch of vulnerable species such as sharks. The European Union is currently considering new legislation to manage deep-sea fisheries, including the introduction of a depth limit to bottom trawling. However, there is little evidence to suggest an appropriate depth limit. Here we use survey data to show that biodiversity of the demersal fish community, the ratio of discarded to commercial biomass, and the ratio of Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays) to commercial biomass significantly increases between 600 and 800 m depth while commercial value decreases. These results suggest that limiting bottom trawling to a maximum depth of 600 m could be an effective management strategy that would fit the needs of European legislations such as the Common Fisheries Policy (EC no. 1380/2013) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC).

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2015.07.070

Volume

25

Issue

18

First Page

2425

Last Page

2429

Comments

©2015 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Download
Peer Reviewed

Find in your library

Share

COinS