Trawling damage to Northeast Atlantic ancient coral reefs

Abstract

This contribution documents widespread trawling damage to cold-water coral reefs at 840-1300 m depth along the West Ireland continental shelf break and at 200 m off West Norway. These reefs are spectacular but poorly known. By-catches from commercial trawls for deep-water fish off West Ireland included large pieces (up to 1 m(2)) of coral that had been broken from reefs and a diverse array of coral-associated benthos. Five azooxanthellate scleractinarian corals were identified in these by-catches, viz. Desmophyllum cristagalli, Enallopsammia rostrata, Lophelia pertusa, Madrepora oculata and Solenosmilia variabilis. Dating of carbonate skeletons using (14)C accelerator mass spectrometry showed that the trawled coral matrix was at least 4550 years old. Surveys by remotely operated vehicles in Norway showed extensive fishing damage to L. pertusa reefs. The urgent need for deep-water coral conservation measures is discussed in a Northeast Atlantic context.

Assessment of goods and services, vulnerability, and conservation status of European seabed biotopes: a stepping stone towards ecosystem-based marine spatial management

“…Severe physical damage to the coral cover of carbonate mounds, from which recovery would take hundreds or thousands of years, has been reported in many areas (Hall-Spencer et al, 2002;Fosså et al, 2002;Wheeler et al, 2005). Global climate change is a serious potential threat for the cold-water coral ecosystems of carbonate mounds due to the acidification of the oceans, rising of seawater temperature and alteration of deep-water circulation (Orr et al, 2005;Murray Roberts et al, 2006;Weaver et al, 2009).…”

A First Approach to Assess the Impact of Bottom Trawling Over Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems on the High Seas of the Southwest Atlantic

“…Deep-water corals are vulnerable organisms occurring in the upper bathyal zones throughout the world and threatened by human activities, particularly fishing and oil exploration [29][30][31]. Fishing has a significant adverse impact (SAI) on deep-water coral communities in all oceans [32][33][34][35], particularly in the Northeast and Northwest Atlantic [36][37][38][39][40], Northeast Pacific [41,42], and Southwest Pacific [43][44][45][46]. In the SW Atlantic, the HS are one of the areas where deep-sea science has, to date, not been very active.…”

[No Title Available]

“…Mundialmente considerada como a arte de pesca mais impactante aos mais diversos ambientes marinhos (Tudela 2004, Guecue 2001, Schratzberger & Jennings 2002, Reed 2002, Duplisea et al 2002, e com comprovado impacto sobre comunidades coralíneas em diversas regiões do mundo (Koslow et al 2001, Hall-Spencer et al 2002, Fosså et al 2002, o arrasto de profundidade realizado em águas brasileiras Biota Neotrop.,vol. 9,no.…”