The Channel habitat atlas for marine resource management (CHARM): an aid for planning and decision-making in an area under strong anthropogenic pressure

Abstract

-The eastern English Channel, the narrow channel of water separating northern France and southeast England is an area of intense human use of the array of resources concentrated into its relative small area. The vulnerability of living resources and their habitats brought together French and British maritime experts within a common project (called CHARM): to create an atlas of marine resource habitats in the eastern English Channel so as to provide planners and decision-makers with the necessary information to help managing the use of its living and non-living resources. This multidisciplinary and richly illustrated atlas provides abundant information on the legal framework and physical environment; benthic invertebrates, fish and their habitats; fishing activities; and a first attempt at developing a trophic network model (using ECOPATH software) and a marine conservation planning exercise (using MARXAN software, at a spatial resolution of 25 km 2 ). Although most of the data used were collected elsewhere, some were collected especially for the project. Similarly, most of the analyses performed on the data where entirely original for this geographical area. The CHARM atlas has significantly improved the knowledge about the eastern Channel while contributing to the recognition that such holistic or multidisciplinary approaches to exploited marine systems are necessary to efficiently and durably manage their resources use. Key words: Eastern English ChannelRésumé -La Manche orientale, ce bras de mer qui sépare l'Angleterre de la France, est une zone très riche d'un point de vue écologique et soumise à une forte utilisation anthropique d'une gamme de ressources concentrées sur une superficie relativement faible. La fragilité des ressources marines vivantes et leurs habitats a rassemblé des experts maritimes français et britanniques autour d'un projet commun (nommé CHARM) dans le but de réaliser un atlas des habitats des ressources marines de la Manche orientale. Cet atlas contient les informations nécessaires aux planificateurs et décideurs pour une meilleure gestion des ressources marines, vivantes ou non. Dans ce document pluridisciplinaire, richement illustré, on peut trouver des informations sur le cadre juridique et l'environnement, les invertébrés benthiques, les poissons et leurs habitats ; les activités de pêche ; et également sur le développement d'un modèle de réseau trophique a Corresponding author: andre.carpentier@ifremer.frArticle published by EDP Sciences 500 C.S. Martin et al.: Aquat. Living Resour. 22, 499-508 (2009) (utilisant le logiciel ECOPATH) et un premier exercice de planification spatiale de la conservation (utilisant le logiciel MARXAN, à une résolution spatiale de 25 km 2 ). Bien que la plupart des données aient été collectées en dehors du projet, certaines l'ont été spécialement pour le projet. De même, la plupart des analyses faites sur ces données sont entièrement inédites pour cette zone géographique. L'atlas CHARM contribue de façon significative à une meilleure connaiss...

Spatio-temporal patterns in demersal elasmobranchs from trawl surveys in the eastern English Channel (1988–2008)

“…UK and French landings trends available for the area and for the period from 1989 to 2006 are consistent with this. They show recent landings declining from 120 t in 2000 to <19 t in 2006 (Carpentier et al 2009), in line with the decline observed for the entire ICES area (total landings recently accounted for 17% of peak landings; Fordham et al 2006). This species (considered to be Critically Endangered in the Northeast Atlantic, according to IUCN criteria) has traditionally been the most commercially important elasmobranch in the Northeast Atlantic, and effective management is needed in order to help rebuild the stock.…”

“…It supports important fisheries, shipping lanes and sites of aggregate extraction, as well as spawning, nursery and feeding areas for a number of marine species (Vaz et al 2007, Carpentier et al 2009, Martin et al 2009, 2010. Between 1988 and 2008, the Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer (IFREMER) carried out the Channel Ground Fish Survey (CGFS), a fishery-independent trawl survey under the auspices of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) International Bottom Trawl Survey Working Group (IBTSWG).…”

“…The grids of kriged values and interpolation variances were then smoothed within a GIS (ESRI ArcMap 9.2, 1999 to 2006) to produce continuous spatial distributions. Further details on the methodology can be found in Webster & Oliver (2001), Vaz et al (2005) and Carpentier et al (2009).…”

“…After peaking at about 350 t in 1991-1992, French landings of S. stellaris have declined to, and stabilised at, about 60 t annually (Carpentier et al 2009) since 1994. The data published in the literature remain insufficient to fully assess this species' status and data presented herein suggest that a large proportion of individuals caught were probably immature.…”

Towards the implementation of an integrated approach to fisheries resources management in Ifremer, France

“…It has the dimensions along which social demand will probably be expressed. The CHARM project [88], associated with the ARCManche initiative (http://www.arcmanche.com/) will constitute a good example of geographic arena within which it will be possible to develop a real scientific mediation process. An example of ecosystemic arena is given by the project for the restoration of the eel resources and its habitats in the central part of its distribution area (from the British Islands to the Iberian peninsula) and the project IN-DICANG [83] that have produced, in collaboration with the fishery and management stake-holders, a methodological guide to elaborate indicators for European eel habitat quality, recruitment level and colonization of freshwater environments.…”