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CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Past Seminars

Seminar Abstract

Understanding the effects of bottom trawls on benthic habitat

A worldwide effort is underway to determine whether bottom trawls, and other mobile fishing gears, harm benthic habitat that is important to commercial species. Nearly all of the research to date has targeted the specific changes in benthic invertebrate populations that occur when mobile fishing gear, particularly bottom trawls, contact the seabed. This focus on benthic invertebrates reflects their limited mobility and vulnerability to bottom-tending gear, and observations that structurally complex seabeds are an important element of healthy productive benthic systems. Effects are typically measured as changes in abundance or community structure. However, despite decades of intensive research, the overall impact of mobile fishing gear on marine ecosystems and, in particular, on fish production is largely unknown. This reflects a need for substantially more research on the ecology of the affected invertebrates and their linkages to managed fish stocks, as well as more systematic studies of disturbance effects.

This talk focuses on research methods and tools being used to study the effects of bottom trawls on benthic habitat in the eastern Bering Sea, and steps being taken to improve the overall research strategy and precautionary management practices.

*National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

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CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
Peter Oke, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine Research (03) 6232 5387
Piers Dunstan, (Biological seminars) CSIRO Marine Research (03) 6232 5382
Katrina Nitschke, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 2265 & IASOS, University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2509