(Deep-sea Fisheries Symposium – Oral) The Rockall Trough, North East Atlantic: an Account of the Change from one of the Best studied Deep-water Ecosystems to one that is Being Subjected to Unsustainable Fishing Activity.

• Main Authors: Fisheries Organization, J. D. M. Gordon
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2001
• Subjects: Norwegian Sea; Rockall Plateau; Rockall Trough; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.196.5797; http://www.sams.ac.uk/sams/projects/dwf/rockall.pdf

The Rockall Trough or Channel is a clearly delimited deepwater area lying to the west of the British Isles. The eastern and western boundaries are formed by the continental margin and the Rockall Plateau, respectively. To the north it is separated from the colder Norwegian Sea by a ridge at about 500 m depth. To the south the depth steadily increases to abyssal depths. Some of the earliest descriptions of deep-water fishes are from this area in the 1860s and 1870s. The UK and Germany carried out deep-water exploratory fishing surveys in the 1970s and 1980s and detailed biological studies by the Scottish Association for Marine Science began in 1975. Although some deep-water fishing began in the 1970s the rapid increase in commercial exploitation did not begin until 1989. As a result there is information on the fish populations and their biology that pre-date the fishery. Since then several countries have carried out research surveys in the area and there has been some monitoring of landings and discards. There are documented concerns about the vulnerability of the fish stocks since 1993 and ICES considers them to be outside safe biological limits. The most recent ICES advice is for a 50 % reduction in fishing effort for the main species. Despite ICES advice the fishery remains unregulated. This paper describes the transition from what is probably one of the best-studied deep-water ecosystems to an area