Smothering is caused by several human activities in this ecoregion: extraction of aggregates (sand and gravel), disposal of materials on the seabed, 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 in the harbours of Avilés, Vilagarcía, Huelva, and the estuary of the Guadalquivir river.
