Effects of Fishing Gear on Essential Fish Habitat
(PLEASE NOTE: These web pages are for archival purposes only and are no longer maintained. For current information please refer to the MESA homepage.)
The 1996 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires assessment of
the effects of fishing on essential fish habitat (EFH) and development of
ways to minimize adverse impacts. Fishing gear that comes in contact
with the seafloor can alter fish habitat. Although few studies have been
conducted in Alaska waters, studies conducted elsewhere have generally
shown that fishing activities can affect species composition and
diversity, and reduce habitat complexity. Recovery after fishing depends
on habitat type, the life history of individual species, and the natural
disturbance regime.
Current studies conducted by the AFSC's
Auke Bay Laboratory and
Resource
Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE)
Division focus on 1) understanding the direct
effects of bottom trawling on seafloor habitat in Alaska waters, 2) the
associations of fish and invertebrate species with habitat features that
may be affected by fishing gear, 3) the evaluation of technology to
determine gear effects and benthic habitat features, and 4)
retrospective analyses of spatial and temporal patterns of bottom
trawling. Most of the field-oriented studies (1-3 above) have
focused on small geographic areas in specific habitat types.
Poster:
Living
Substrates in Alaska:
Distribution, Abundance, and Species Association
Poster:
Sea Whip Resiliency
to Simulated Trawl Disturbance
 |
Over 200 trawlers catch roughly 2 million metric tons of Alaska groundfish worth about $380 million (exvessel) annually. Some locations are repeatedly trawled because of high catch rates. |
Research
plans (.pdf file) focus on identifying the effects of
various
gear types (trawls, longlines, pots, and dredges) on
fish habitat for a
range of habitat types, mapping habitat, and
examining the associations
between habitat features, fish
utilization, and geological processes.
Long-term plans call
for studies that establish the connections between
habitat
and fish production and population dynamics, and the
mitigation
of effects through gear design.
Progress Reports for
2002,
2003, and
2004
summarize
research conducted during the year. Other progress
reports for
May-June 2003and
July-December 2003
cover
research on deep sea coral and sponge habitats in the
Aleutian Islands.
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