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<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Scientists
map the impact of trawling using satellite vessel tracking<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>by<span
class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#292B2C'> </span></span><a
href="https://news.mongabay.com/by/john-c-cannon/"><span style='color:black;
text-decoration:none'>John C. Cannon</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#292B2C'> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>17
October 2018<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>https://news.mongabay.com/wildtech/2018/10/vessel-tracking-data-maps-out-the-impact-of-trawling-around-the-world/<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>A team of scientists has
produced the most comprehensive assessment to date of trawling, a fishing
technique that produces a sizable portion of the world’s seafood but is
also seen as destructive and indiscriminate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>The
research tracked the movements of trawlers in 24 regions of the world,
identifying the extent and intensity of their impacts — the
industry’s “footprint” — along continental shelves down
to depths of 1,000 meters (3,280 feet).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>“This
is the first study that tried to map the impact of trawling at this global
scale,” Ricardo Amoroso, a biologist at the University of Washington,
said in an interview.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Amoroso and his colleagues
collected data from satellite-linked vessel monitoring systems, or VMSes, and
logbooks from the past two to six years. They found that trawlers fished 14
percent of the ocean in the areas they studied, leaving 86 percent untouched by
trawling. They<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/10/03/1802379115" target="_blank"><span
style='color:#45AAE8'>published their work Oct. 3</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>in the journal<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences</span></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>The
figures quoted in the study raised concerns for University of British Columbia
marine biologist Amanda Vincent, who was not involved in the study.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>“It
strikes me as an extraordinary apology for a fishing method that is really
devastating,” Vincent told Mongabay. “I would be very concerned if
this became a basis for policy decisions.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:18.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><img
border=0 width=768 height=501 id="Imagen_x0020_2"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01D46ABD.B825B870"
alt="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/10/16095620/Trawling-illustration.jpg"></span><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:18.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#292B2C'>An illustration showing how bottom-trawling works. A net is
pulled along the ocean’s shelves and slopes. Image by Femke Van Gent, ©
Jan Hiddink/Bangor University.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Trawling is often criticized
for the damage it can do to the habitats and sea life that anchor ecosystems
along the world’s coastlines. Bottom trawls and dredges tear up the ocean
floor, critics say, and huge nets<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/annihilation-trawling-qa-with-marine-biologist-amanda-vincent/"><span
style='color:#45AAE8'>indiscriminately scoop up nearly anything in their path</span></a>.
At the same time, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/I9942T" target="_blank"><span
style='color:#45AAE8'>estimates that trawling provides almost a quarter</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>of the seafood that feeds humans
around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>One of
Vincent’s concerns was that the study only covered the portion of the
ocean over the continental shelf from which the researchers could obtain reliable
VMS data, but it ignored large parts of the world where scientists know that
trawlers are likely having a big impact.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>“The
paper over-interprets quite substantially the work that’s actually
happened here in that this covers at best 18 percent of the world’s
… continental shelf to 1,000 meters,” Vincent said, “and a
very selective 18 percent at that.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>For instance, she said, in the
Africa region, the team analyzed fisheries data only from Namibia and South
Africa. As with many of the other regions included in the research, such as
Europe, Chile and Argentina, Alaska, and Australia and New Zealand,
“These are all areas with pretty advanced fisheries management
capacity,” Vincent said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Amoroso
and his colleagues acknowledge in the paper that their data weren’t
comprehensive. They excluded parts of the world where VMS data covering 70
percent or more of the catch either wasn’t available or the countries
didn’t provide it. Those areas, including the eastern coast of Canada and
the U.S., Southeast Asia, and the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of France and
Spain, probably have a lot of trawlers in operation, they write.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>But
Amoroso also said the level of detail from the VMS data was critical in accurately
assessing trawling’s impact. Their analysis identified the paths of
trawlers inside 1-square-kilometer (0.4-square-mile) blocks of oceans, while in
previous studies, grids were as large as 3 square kilometers (1.2 square
miles).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:18.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><img
border=0 width=768 height=768 id="Imagen_x0020_4"
src="cid:image002.jpg@01D46ABD.B825B870"
alt="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/10/16095642/Trawling-intensity-map.jpg"></span><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:18.0pt;
background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#292B2C'>This figure shows examples of high-resolution mapping of
trawling intensity (or the “trawl footprint”) at 1,000 meters
(3,280 feet) in depth or shallower. The dotted line shows the study area, and
the solid blue line denotes the 1,000-meter depth region. The scale bar is 100
kilometers (62 miles). Image courtesy of the University of Washington.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>“What we clearly see is
that resolution is very important,” Amoroso said, “because you can
end up with an overestimation of the footprint just because you [choose] a very
low-resolution to map the impact of trawling.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>The
high resolution that the team used allowed them to pluck nuance from the data,
including the “diversity” of trawling footprints around the world,
Amoroso said. Around Chile, the footprint covered as little as 0.4 percent of
the continental shelf the team studied. In contrast, the trawling footprint was
as high as 80 percent in the Adriatic Sea, part of the Mediterranean.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>When
Amoroso and his colleagues looked at locations with well-run, relatively sustainable
fisheries, they found that the footprint of trawling was often lower, meaning
the impacts were less widespread.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>“You can achieve extra
benefits by managing these species on the ecosystem,” Amoroso said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Vincent
said the use of VMS data could boost our understanding of the effects of
trawling.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>“Using
technology, using new approaches is to be applauded,” she said. “The
trick always in science is to limit your interpretation [and] limit your
representation of your work to a level that can actually be sustained by the
work itself.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>She
said that focusing narrowly just on the tracks that trawling follows
doesn’t account for the technique’s broader reach. Those impacts,
on the food web, on the flow of nutrients, and on the absorption of carbon,
Vincent said, can ripple through the ecosystem, and they can extend beyond the
two- to six-year time frame of this study.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>“Imagine a forest with a
spider web of bulldozer tracks,” Vincent said. “Would you feel that
it was OK just to analyze the bulldozer tracks?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>“The
answer obviously,” she added, “is no.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Amoroso
defended the study, saying, “If you want to have a full assessment of
what is happening in the benthic [seabed] ecosystem due to trawling, you really
need to have these high-resolution maps.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>But he
agreed that more work was needed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>“The
footprint doesn’t mean much,” Amoroso said. “You need to put
this information together with benthic maps of habitat. You need to address the
question of how much is this gear impacting the species that live in the
community and how likely are these species to recover if I stop the fishing
activity.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><strong><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Citation</span></strong><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:18.0pt;background:white;box-sizing: inherit;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;margin:1rem 0px;word-wrap: break-word'><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#292B2C'>Amoroso,
R. O., Pitcher, C. R., Rijnsdorp, A. D., McConnaughey, R. A., Parma, A. M.,
Suuronen, P., … Jennings, S. (2018). <b>Bottom trawl fishing footprints
on the world’s continental shelves.</b><span class=apple-converted-space> </span><em><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences</span></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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