Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review 2012

AEBAR 2012: Appendices: Past projects
BENTHIC IMPACTS continued
Project Code Project Title Specific Objectives Status Citation/s
IFA2008-04 Guide for the rapid
identification of material in
the process of managing
Vulnerable Marine
Ecosystems
IFA2007-02 Development of a Draft
New Zealand High-Seas
Bottom Trawling Benthic
Assessment Standard
BEN2007-01 Assessing the effects of
fishing on soft sediment
habitat, fauna, and
processes
BEN2006-01 Mapping the spatial and
temporal extent of fishing
in the EEZ
To produce a guide for the rapid identification of material in the process of
managing Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems
1. To generate data summaries and maps of New Zealand’s recent historic highseas
bottom trawling catch and effort in the proposed convention area of the
South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO).
2. To map vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) in the SPRFMO area.
3. To develop a draft standard for assessment of benthic impacts of high-seas
bottom trawling on VMEs in the proposed SPRFMO convention area.
1. To design and test sampling and analytical strategies for broad-scale
assessments of habitat and faunal spatial structure and variation across a variety
of seafloor habitats.
2. To design and carry out experiments to assess the effects of bottom trawling
and dredging on benthic communities and ecological processes important to the
sustainability of fishing at scales of relevance to fishery managers.
1. To update maps and develop GIS layers of fishing effort from project
ENV2000/05 to show the spatial and temporal distribution of mobile bottom
fishing throughout the EEZ between 1989/90 and 2004/05.
2. To produce summary statistics of major fisheries and the aggregate of all
bottom impacting fisheries in terms of the extent and frequency of fishing by
year, by depth zone, by fishable area, and, to the extent possible, by habitat
type.
3. To identify and document any major trends or changes in fishing effort or
fishing behaviour.
4. To identify, discuss the implications of, and make recommendations on data
quality and other problems with current reporting systems that complicate
characterisation and quantification of bottom fishing effort.
5. To integrate information on the distribution, frequency, and magnitude of
fishing disturbance with habitat characteristics throughout the EEZ, using
information stored in national databases, expert opinion, and the MEC.
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Completed Tracey et al. 2008
Completed Parker 2008
Ongoing
analysis
Completed Baird et al. 2009; 2011; Baird
& Wood 2010; Leathwick et
al. 2010; 2012