Lophelia bioherms and lithoherms as fish habitats on the Blake Plateau: Biodiversity and Sustainability ...

• Main Author: George, Robert Y.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 2004 - AA - Theme session 2024
• Subjects: Ecosystem observation, processes and dynamics; Pressures, impacts, conservation, and management; Lophelia pertusa; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25349137; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Lophelia_bioherms_and_lithoherms_as_fish_habitats_on_the_Blake_Plateau_Biodiversity_and_Sustainability/25349137

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.With the decline of fisheries in shallow continental shelf, there is likelihood for commercial and sports-fishing pressure dipping down to deep-waters and deep-sea over the slope and seamounts. It is now well-known that dense aggregations of scleractinian coral Lophelia pertusa at bathyal depths (300 – 950 m) on both sides of the North Atlantic Ocean constitute fish habitats with high concentrations of non-target and commercial fish species. Oculina reefs off central Florida coast became the first MPAs in EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) in the US coast in 1980s but in 1990s inadequate action or failure in management strategies (mismanagement or lack of regulatory efforts to install VMS -Vessel Monitoring Systems in fishing vessels) resulted in habitat loss and fish decline (grouper and snapper species). The South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (SAFMC) defined the Oculina reefs as Essential Fisheries Habitat (EFH) with a HAPC status ...