Fishing effects on diversity, size and community structure of the benthic invertebrate and fish megafauna on the Bay of Biscay coast of France
TLDR
It is concluded that the differences between the most strongly exploited and the moderately exploited areas were consistent with the hypothesis that fishing causes major disturbance to benthic communities on deeper bottoms of the continental shelf.Abstract:
Within the framework of the 'dynamic equilibrium model', we tested the hypothesis that fishing causes major disturbance to benthic communities on deeper bottoms of the continental shelf. Benthic megafauna on the Bay of Biscay coast of France was sampled on fishing grounds subject to various conditions of exploitation. Samples were taken at around 100 m depth to avoid strong natural disturbances. Species diversity and the largest body mass class of invertebrates were smaller in strongly exploited areas than in moderately exploited ones. Biomass size spectra in strongly exploited areas were characterised by a comparatively large biomass of small invertebrates, hence the K-dom- inance curve of abundance was either above the biomass curve, or the curves intersected. In moder- ately exploited areas, the K-dominance biomass curves were above the abundance curves; the dom- inant species were a commercial species and a benthic species sensitive to the physical effects of the fishing gears. In the heavily exploited areas, the dominant species were opportunistic carnivorous species of minor or no commercial interest. There were no dominant fish species in the most strongly exploited areas, while 2 fish species were found in the moderately exploited areas. No fragile species were found in the most exploited areas, whereas 6 fragile species were found in the moderately exploited ones. It is concluded that the differences between the most strongly exploited and the moderately exploited areas were consistent with the hypothesis.read more
Citations
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Functional changes as indicators of trawling disturbance on a benthic community located in a fishing ground (NW Mediterranean Sea)
TL;DR: In this article, changes in functional compo- nents of the benthic community occurring in muddy sediments in a NW Mediterranean trawling ground, including an area that has not been fished for 20 years, were investigated.
Journal ArticleDOI
Fishing impact on deep Mediterranean rocky habitats as revealed by ROV investigation
Marzia Bo,Simone Bava,Simonepietro Canese,Michela Angiolillo,Riccardo Cattaneo-Vietti,Giorgio Bavestrello +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) surveys to assess the extent of fishing impacts on rocky substrata on four offshore banks between 70 and 280m depth in the Mediterranean Sea.
Journal ArticleDOI
Long-term and spillover effects of a marine protected area on an exploited fish community
Ben Stobart,Richard M. Warwick,César González,Sandra Mallol,David Díaz Díaz,Olga Reñones,Raquel Goñi +6 more
TL;DR: The creation of the CIMR has had a positive effect on the exploitable fish community and that there is evidence of exportation of biomass to the surrounding fishery, which is concluded to be a transitional zone influenced by this MPA.
Journal ArticleDOI
Indicators of the health of the North Sea fish community: identifying reference levels for an ecosystem approach to management
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply a suite of 12 indicators to Scottish August groundfish survey data collected in the northern North Sea over the period 1925e1997 and show that fishing has unequivocally affected various aspects of the structure of the groundfish community, and illustrate an approach by which long time series data sets might be used to identify possible management reference points.
Journal ArticleDOI
Exploring the effects of fishing on fish assemblages using Abundance Biomass Comparison (ABC) curves
TL;DR: The ABC method shows promise as a guide for assessing the effects of fishing on fish communities, being based on established r- and k-selection theory, and more modelling and comparative work is needed to establish acceptable ranges for the W-statistic, and their application in an ecosystem approach to fisheries management.
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