Ecosystem overviews

Oceanic Northeast Atlantic Ecosystem Overview

Pressure: Abrasion

​Abrasion is primarily caused by bottom-contacting fishing gear. Current bottom trawl fisheries operate in very specific areas such as along bank slopes, e.g. Hatton Bank, or on seamounts, e.g. Fangorn Bank (Figure 5). These data illustrate that bottom trawl fishing is very patchy and restricted by the spatial management plans introduced by NEAFC. Within the areas that remain open to fishing (existing bottom fishing areas), certain sites and tracks are preferred and fished repeatedly.

​No commercial fisheries have operat​​ed deeper than approx. 1600 m; thus, a large proportion of the seabed in the area has never been abraded by fisheries. Although vessel monitoring data exist for the area for recent years, the most intense fishing happened prior to the advent of VMS, so it is very difficult to assess the historical abrasion footprint

Go back to Oceanic NE Atlantic Ecosystem Overview diagram​

Print this pagePrint it Request newsletterSend to Post to Facebook Post to Twitter Post to LinkedIn Share it

​​Figure 5: Examples of tracks of fishing vessels (VMS records; dark blue lines) on Rockall and Fangorn banks (upper) and Hatton Bank (lower). The light brown areas are NEAFC “existing bottom fishing areas” that are open to fishing, while grey polygons are closed to bottom fishing. The outer limits of the EEZs are shown as solid grey lines. Bottom fishing is not allowed within the Haddock Box (green) to protect juvenile haddock (source: https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.advice.5580)

c FollowFollow Focus on ContentFocus on Content
HelpGive Feedback
SharePoint

Oceanic Northeast Atlantic Ecosystem Overview

International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) · Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer (CIEM)
ICES Secretariat · H. C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46, DK 1553 Copenhagen V, Denmark · Tel: +45 3338 6700 · Fax: +45 3393 4215 · info@ices.dk
Disclaimer Privacy policy · © ICES - All Rights Reserved
top