Effectiveness of a deep-sea cold-water coral Marine Protected Area, following eight years of fisheries closure
Effectiveness of a deep-sea cold-water coral Marine Protected Area, following eight years of fisheries closure
Pressure on deep-sea ecosystems continues to increase as anthropogenic activities move into ever deeper waters. To mitigate impacts on vulnerable habitats, various conservation measures exist, such as the designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). So far, however, little evidence is available about their effectiveness. This paper presents a unique follow-up study assessing the status and recovery of a deep-sea fisheries closure and MPA at ~1000 m water depth in the NE Atlantic, eight years after designation. The Darwin Mounds cold-water coral ecosystem was discovered in 1998, and closed to all bottom contact fisheries, especially trawling, in 2003. Our repeat survey in 2011 used both high-resolution sidescan sonar data collected by Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and video footage from a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to evaluate recovery. The results demonstrate that (1) protection was successful and fishing impact was largely avoided in the Western Darwin Mounds, which contained similar proportions of live cold-water coral occurrence in 2011 as observed in 1998-2000; however (2) the Eastern Darwin Mounds suffered severe damage pre-closure, and by 2011 showed no coral recolonisation and very little regrowth. These results are further evidence for the low resilience and slow recovery potential of deep-sea ecosystems, and underline once again the importance of the precautionary principle in deep-sea conservation
Cold-water coral ecosystem resilience, Bottom trawling, Marine conservation, Precautionary principle, Monitoring of deep-sea MPAs
60-69
Huvenne, V.A.I.
f22be3e2-708c-491b-b985-a438470fa053
Bett, B.J.
61342990-13be-45ae-9f5c-9540114335d9
Masson, D.G.
edd44c8b-38ca-45fb-8d0d-ac8365748a45
Le Bas, T.P.
f0dbad80-bb38-412c-be77-b8b9faef1854
Wheeler, A.J.
17a38f47-d5cc-4bcb-b1a8-ddfb84851d99
August 2016
Huvenne, V.A.I.
f22be3e2-708c-491b-b985-a438470fa053
Bett, B.J.
61342990-13be-45ae-9f5c-9540114335d9
Masson, D.G.
edd44c8b-38ca-45fb-8d0d-ac8365748a45
Le Bas, T.P.
f0dbad80-bb38-412c-be77-b8b9faef1854
Wheeler, A.J.
17a38f47-d5cc-4bcb-b1a8-ddfb84851d99
Huvenne, V.A.I., Bett, B.J., Masson, D.G., Le Bas, T.P. and Wheeler, A.J.
(2016)
Effectiveness of a deep-sea cold-water coral Marine Protected Area, following eight years of fisheries closure.
Biological Conservation, 200, .
(doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.05.030).
Abstract
Pressure on deep-sea ecosystems continues to increase as anthropogenic activities move into ever deeper waters. To mitigate impacts on vulnerable habitats, various conservation measures exist, such as the designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). So far, however, little evidence is available about their effectiveness. This paper presents a unique follow-up study assessing the status and recovery of a deep-sea fisheries closure and MPA at ~1000 m water depth in the NE Atlantic, eight years after designation. The Darwin Mounds cold-water coral ecosystem was discovered in 1998, and closed to all bottom contact fisheries, especially trawling, in 2003. Our repeat survey in 2011 used both high-resolution sidescan sonar data collected by Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and video footage from a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to evaluate recovery. The results demonstrate that (1) protection was successful and fishing impact was largely avoided in the Western Darwin Mounds, which contained similar proportions of live cold-water coral occurrence in 2011 as observed in 1998-2000; however (2) the Eastern Darwin Mounds suffered severe damage pre-closure, and by 2011 showed no coral recolonisation and very little regrowth. These results are further evidence for the low resilience and slow recovery potential of deep-sea ecosystems, and underline once again the importance of the precautionary principle in deep-sea conservation
Text
Darwin Mounds revisited_new_rev.docx
- Accepted Manuscript
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1-s2.0-S0006320716302117-main.pdf
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 30 May 2016
Published date: August 2016
Keywords:
Cold-water coral ecosystem resilience, Bottom trawling, Marine conservation, Precautionary principle, Monitoring of deep-sea MPAs
Organisations:
Marine Biogeochemistry, Marine Geoscience
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 396177
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/396177
ISSN: 0006-3207
PURE UUID: 5af2071c-cf1f-4699-a719-ef1d0306c36b
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Date deposited: 01 Jun 2016 10:51
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:37
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Contributors
Author:
V.A.I. Huvenne
Author:
B.J. Bett
Author:
D.G. Masson
Author:
T.P. Le Bas
Author:
A.J. Wheeler
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