TY - JOUR

T1 - Trawl impacts on the relative status of biotic communities of seabed sedimentary habitats in 24 regions worldwide

AU - Pitcher, C. Roland

AU - Hiddink, Jan Geert

AU - Jennings, Simon

AU - Collie, Jeremy

AU - Parma, Ana

AU - Amoroso, Ricardo

AU - Mazor, Tessa

AU - Sciberras, Marija

AU - McConnaughey, Robert A.

AU - Rijnsdorp, Adriaan J.

AU - Kaiser, Michel

AU - Suuronen, Petri

AU - Hilborn, Ray

PY - 2022/1/11

Y1 - 2022/1/11

N2 - Bottom trawling is widespread globally and impacts seabed habitats. However, risks from trawling remain unquantified at large scales in most regions. We address these issues by synthesizing evidence on the impacts of different trawl-gear types, seabed recovery rates, and spatial distributions of trawling intensity in a quantitative indicator of biotic status (relative amount of pretrawling biota) for sedimentary habitats, where most bottom-trawling occurs, in 24 regions worldwide. Regional average status relative to an untrawled state (=1) was high (>0.9) in 15 regions, but 0.8. These assessments are first order, based on parameters estimated with uncertainty from meta-analyses; we recommend regional analyses to refine parameters for local specificity. Nevertheless, our results are sufficiently robust to highlight regions needing more effective management to reduce exploitation and improve stock sustainability and seabed environmental status-while also showing seabed status was high (>0.95) in regions where catches of trawled fish stocks meet accepted benchmarks for sustainable exploitation, demonstrating that environmental benefits accrue from effective fisheries management. Furthermore, regional seabed status was related to the proportional area swept by trawling, enabling preliminary predictions of regional status when only the total amount of trawling is known. This research advances seascape-scale understanding of trawl impacts in regions around the world, enables quantitative assessment of sustainability risks, and facilitates implementation of an ecosystem approach to trawl fisheries management globally.

AB - Bottom trawling is widespread globally and impacts seabed habitats. However, risks from trawling remain unquantified at large scales in most regions. We address these issues by synthesizing evidence on the impacts of different trawl-gear types, seabed recovery rates, and spatial distributions of trawling intensity in a quantitative indicator of biotic status (relative amount of pretrawling biota) for sedimentary habitats, where most bottom-trawling occurs, in 24 regions worldwide. Regional average status relative to an untrawled state (=1) was high (>0.9) in 15 regions, but 0.8. These assessments are first order, based on parameters estimated with uncertainty from meta-analyses; we recommend regional analyses to refine parameters for local specificity. Nevertheless, our results are sufficiently robust to highlight regions needing more effective management to reduce exploitation and improve stock sustainability and seabed environmental status-while also showing seabed status was high (>0.95) in regions where catches of trawled fish stocks meet accepted benchmarks for sustainable exploitation, demonstrating that environmental benefits accrue from effective fisheries management. Furthermore, regional seabed status was related to the proportional area swept by trawling, enabling preliminary predictions of regional status when only the total amount of trawling is known. This research advances seascape-scale understanding of trawl impacts in regions around the world, enables quantitative assessment of sustainability risks, and facilitates implementation of an ecosystem approach to trawl fisheries management globally.

KW - habitat sensitivity

KW - recovery

KW - spatial upscaling

KW - trawl footprints

KW - trawl impacts

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2109449119

DO - 10.1073/pnas.2109449119

M3 - Article

VL - 119

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA

SN - 0027-8424

IS - 2

M1 - e2109449119

ER -