ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access originally published online on November 13, 2008
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2009 66(1):82-89; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsn181
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This article appears in the following ICES Journal of Marine Science issue: European Symposium on Marine Protected Areas as a Tool for Fisheries Management and Ecosystem Conservation [View the issue table of contents]
Selecting MPAs to conserve groundfish biodiversity: the consequences of failing to account for catchability in survey trawls
1 FRS Marine Laboratory, PO Box 101, 375 Victoria Road, Aberdeen AB11 9DB, Scotland, UK
2 Wageningen IMARES, Haringkade 1, 1976 CP IJmuiden, The Netherlands
Correspondence to H. M. Fraser: tel: +44 1224 295439; fax: +44 1224 295511; e-mail: h.fraser{at}marlab.ac.uk.
Fraser, H. M., Greenstreet, S. P. R., and Piet, G. J. 2009. Selecting MPAs to conserve groundfish biodiversity: the consequences of failing to account for catchability in survey trawls. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 82–89.Fishing has affected North Sea groundfish species diversity. Defining Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to address this will rely on groundfish surveys. Species-specific catch efficiencies vary between trawl gears, and apparent species diversity distributions are influenced by the type of gear used in each survey. It may be that no single survey depicts actual diversity distributions. Two MPA scenarios designed to protect groundfish species diversity are described, the first based on unadjusted International Bottom Trawl Survey data and the second based on the same data adjusted to take account of catchability. Spatial overlap between these scenarios is low. Assuming that the adjusted data best describe the actual species diversity distribution, the level of diversity safeguarded by MPAs, based on unadjusted data, is determined. A fishing effort redistribution model is used to estimate the increase in fishing activity that is likely to occur in MPAs that take catchability into account, if closed areas based solely on the unadjusted groundfish data were implemented. Our results highlight the need to take survey-gear catchability into account when designating MPAs to address fish-species diversity issues.
Keywords: benthic mortality, ecosystem approach to fishery management, GOV trawls, groundfish species diversity, International Bottom Trawl Surveys
Received 24 October 2007; accepted 3 April 2008; advance access publication 13 November 2008.
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S. P. R. Greenstreet, H. M. Fraser, and G. J. Piet Using MPAs to address regional-scale ecological objectives in the North Sea: modelling the effects of fishing effort displacement ICES J. Mar. Sci., January 1, 2009; 66(1): 90 - 100. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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