Technical measures and environmental risk assessments for deep-sea sponge conservation

• Main Authors: Thompson, Tony, Fuller, Susanna D
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: environmental risk assessment; deep sea; conservation; Climate change; Environmental sustainability; Fisheries; Natural resources; Oceans & marine resources; Research; Sustainable development; European Union (EU); Horizon 2020; Grant Agreement No 679849; Deep-sea Sponge grounds Ecosystems of the North Atlantic: an integrated approach towards their preservation and sustainable exploitation; SponGES; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/3859806; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3859806

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Reducing the impacts of deep-sea bottom fishing in the high seas on non-target and associated and dependent species, including vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) is an important element of an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management. This approach is an evolution of fisheries management, which incorporates biodiversity protection and is underpinned by legal frameworks including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA)1, the Compliance Agreement2, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Soft law mechanisms including the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Sustainable Fisheries Resolutions, and the International Guidelines for the Management of Deep-sea Fisheries in the High Seas (FAO DSF Guidelines; FAO, 2009) provide further guidance to reduce impacts from fishing activities. Most recently, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the targets through the Sustainable Development Goal framework, specifically SDG 14 strengthen the framework within which States can take actions to reduce biodiversity loss in marine ecosystems. Deep-sea sponges are important contributors to some VMEs and may be considered VMEs on an individual species basis, either through forming dense single and multi-species patches on the seafloor or as part of diverse deep-sea coral/sponge communities. Deep-sea sponges tend to be long lived and slow growing, and perform a variety of ecosystem functions including habitat provision for associated species in both hard and soft substrates, benthic-pelagic coupling, carbon, nitrogen and silica uptake and cycling, particle deposition, water filtration and removal of bacteria as well as current baffling, and alteration of the surrounding microenvironment. While comparatively less well studied than species in shallow water and on coral reefs, deep-sea sponges play similar roles in the ecosystem. However, ...