Smothering is caused by several human activities in this ecoregion: extraction of aggregates (sand and gravel), disposal of materials on the seafloor, and navigational dredging for shipping as well as bottom trawling in soft sediment areas. The main dredging sites are found in France in the harbours and estuaries of the Loire (Nantes), Gironde (Bordeaux), and Adour (Bayonne), and in Spain (Avilés, Vilagarcía, and Huelva). This pressure affects both the benthic community structure and its productivity.
Other pressures in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian coast ecoregion
