| Summary: | During the 13th NAFO Working Group on Ecosystem Science and Assessment (WGESA) virtual meeting new preliminary data on deep-water corals and sponges were presented from the 2020 EU-Spain and Portugal and Canadian bottom trawl groundfish surveys. The data was made available to the NAFO WGESA to improve mapping of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem (VME) species in the NAFO Regulatory Area (Divs. 3LMNO). During the 6th meeting of the NAFO Scientific Council WGESA, new quantitative spatial analyses were applied for corals and sponges for all the available data within the NAFO Regulatory Area (NAFO SCS, 2013). Outcomes from those analyses produced the following thresholds for VME species groups: 75 kg per tow for sponges, 0.6 kg per tow for large gorgonians, 0.15 kg per tow for small gorgonians, and 1.4 kg per tow for sea pens. Based on these thresholds deep-water coral and sponge data were identified and mapped, overlaid with the current closed areas, polygons for kernel density of sea pens and modified kernel density polygons for sponge grounds and large gorgonian VMEs. New thresholds and VME polygons were presented at the 12th WGESA meeting using additional data since 2013. These are: 100 kg per tow for sponges, 0.6 kg per tow for large gorgonians, 0.2 kg per tow for small gorgonians, 1.3 kg per tow for sea pens, and 0.35 for Boltenia sea squirts. Therefore, polygons illustrated on the figures below are the modified ones, accepted by SC. Versión del editor 0
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