Anthropogenic Impacts on the Corner Rise Seamounts, North-West Atlantic Ocean

• Published in: Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
• Main Authors: Waller, Rhian, Watling, Les, Auster, P., Shank, T.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@UMaine 2007
• Subjects: North West Atlantic
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/sms_facpub/15; https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315407057785; https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/context/sms_facpub/article/1014/viewcontent/Waller.87.5.1075.pdf

Here we report the first direct underwater observations of extensive human-caused impacts on two remote seamounts in the Corner Rise complex (north-western Atlantic). This note documents evidence of anthropogenic damage on the summits of Kukenthal peak (on Corner Seamount) and Yakutat Scamount, likely resulting from a limited Russian fishery from the mid- 1970s to the mid-1990s, highlighting how bottom trawling can have long-term detrimental effects oil deep-water benthic fauna.