Fig 3 - available via license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Content may be subject to copyright.
Bottom trawling activity in European EEZs. (A) Average annual trawling effort between 2016 -2021 aggregated by 0.01 x 0.01 degree. (B) Percent of total EEZ area trawled. (C) Percent of total trawling effort by protection status of area. (D) Trawling intensities (kWh/km 2 ) by area. MPA boundaries are from the World Database of Protected Areas (2024) and classifications are from Rechberger et al. (50) based on MPA Guide.
Source publication
Commercial bottom trawl and dredge fisheries are active across much of Europe, and their geographic footprint is extensive. More than half of seabed area is trawled every year in some parts of Europe. But these fisheries remain contentious; significant ecological and economic damages have been well documented. Yet, they remain a source of food and...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... portion of the fish caught by bottom trawlers ends up being discarded or returned to the sea. SAU estimates discards as a component of reconstructed catches for each EEZ area, and we use these to estimate the magnitude of discards associated with bottom trawling by flag state across our study area (Fig. ...
Context 2
... time t (mt) and is the 25th percentile í µí± í µí± , í µí±¡ í µí± í µí±¡ í µí±í µí±¥ − 25 í µí±¡ℎ of the landings prices for species harvested by fleet f ($/mt). In this way, we are assuming the economic value of discards from bottom trawling to be a fraction of that of the same magnitude of landed catches of comparable species, but not zero (Fig. ...
Context 3
... include the fraction being provided to bottom trawlers within our study area. These calculations, made by SAU, were made based on the fraction of each flag-states' total landed value coming from bottom trawl fishing in the study area. We then calculate rates of subsidization by flag state and use these rates to estimate vessel-specific subsidies (Fig. S3E). This approach assumes that rates of subsidization remain constant by flag state across years, but the magnitude of subsidies provided each year will ...
Context 4
... includes more than 6,000 implemented and designated marine protected areas in European (EU, UK, Norway and Iceland) exclusive economic zones, encompassing a total area of over 900,000 square kilometers ( Fig. 2A). We estimate that the footprint of bottom trawling encompasses 23.4% (~1.71 million km 2 ) of the European EEZ area considered here (Fig. 3A), but MPAs offering strong protections against bottom trawling ("fully" or "highly" protected) only encompass 0.07% (~5,000 km 2 ) of the study area (Fig. ...
Context 5
... find that on average, 12.7% of all trawling effort each year (Fig. 3A) between 2016-2021 occurred within the boundaries of implemented or designated MPAs in our study area. For only EU states, the figure is higher: 20.3%. However, this figure varies greatly by country-more than 25% of the annual trawling effort in the EEZs of Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Guernsey, Netherlands, Romania, and Spain ...
Context 6
... 2016-2021 occurred within the boundaries of implemented or designated MPAs in our study area. For only EU states, the figure is higher: 20.3%. However, this figure varies greatly by country-more than 25% of the annual trawling effort in the EEZs of Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Guernsey, Netherlands, Romania, and Spain occurred in MPAs (Fig. 3C). Additionally, we find trawling intensities to be similar inside of MPAs in many countries, as compared to unprotected areas where trawling occurs (Fig. 3D). These results are not surprising, as a recent study found bottom trawling effort to be greater in many MPAs in northern Europe than in nearby unprotected areas (52) ...
Context 7
... this figure varies greatly by country-more than 25% of the annual trawling effort in the EEZs of Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Guernsey, Netherlands, Romania, and Spain occurred in MPAs (Fig. 3C). Additionally, we find trawling intensities to be similar inside of MPAs in many countries, as compared to unprotected areas where trawling occurs (Fig. 3D). These results are not surprising, as a recent study found bottom trawling effort to be greater in many MPAs in northern Europe than in nearby unprotected areas (52) ...
