Fishing impacts on benthic ecosystems: an introduction to the 2014 ICES symposium special issue

Abstract Understanding the impacts of fishing on the seabed is a basic requirement for ecosystem-based marine management. It is only recently that we have begun understanding how fisheries-driven perturbations affect ecosystem function, biodiversity, productivity, and resilience. Technical solutions...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ICES Journal of Marine Science
Main Authors: Buhl-Mortensen, Lene, Neat, Francis, Koen-Alonso, Mariano, Hvingel, Carsten, Holte, Børge
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsv237
http://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article-pdf/73/suppl_1/i1/31231148/fsv237.pdf
Description
Summary:Abstract Understanding the impacts of fishing on the seabed is a basic requirement for ecosystem-based marine management. It is only recently that we have begun understanding how fisheries-driven perturbations affect ecosystem function, biodiversity, productivity, and resilience. Technical solutions aimed at minimizing seabed impacts are starting to appear, but their efficacy remains to be demonstrated. In 2014, ICES held a symposium on the effects of fishing on benthic fauna, habitat, and ecosystem function, in Tromsø, Norway. The main goals of the symposium were to summarize current understanding of the physical and biological effects of fishing activities on benthic ecosystems, and to review the diversity of technical measures currently available to mitigate these effects. Here, we briefly describe the background to the scientific symposium and highlight the main contributions.