Marina Biel-Cabanelas

Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC)

Megabenthic communities on the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea are among the most studied in the world. These communities, rich in sessile arborescent taxa, form animal forests with complex three-dimensional structures that are subjected to the impact of fishing. Bottom contact gears, long-lines, gills and trammel nets entangling, results in organis...

The Mediterranean Sea has historically been significantly impacted by several anthropogenic activities, with commercial fishing being of utmost importance. Trawling and other bottom-contact fishing methods have led to the depletion of stocks and alteration of the sea floor over time. These fishing practices have impacted habitat quality, biodiversi...

This Collective Article presents information about 30 species with records in eight countries (Greece, Israel, Italy, Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, Syria and Türkiye) and six ecoregions extending from the Alboran to the Levantine Seas. The recorded species belong to eight Phyla (4 Chlorophyta, 1 Rhodophyta, 1 Porifera, 3 Cnidaria, 2 Platyhelminthes,...

Cold-Water Corals play a paramount role in marine benthic ecosystems, increasing their complexity and providing spawning and nursery habitats to many species. However, due to their sessile lifestyle and ramified shape they are commonly entangled in nets and even by-caught during the practice of bottom-contact fishing, which includes impacts from bo...

Bottom trawling can significantly affect benthic communities, directly through immediate removal of sessile organisms and indirectly through sediment resuspension. Submarine canyons, often surrounded by fishing grounds, are important habitats for cold-water corals (CWC). Vulnerability of CWCs to increased suspended sediment concentration (SSC) is k...

Although Astrospartus mediterraneus (Risso, 1826) is an emblematic Mediterranean species, limited information is currently available, as it has not received much attention from the marine scientific community to date. In this context, an unusually high abundance of this basket star was observed in 2018 as part of the by-catch of local artisanal fis...

The "Gorgònia Barcelona" project was born in 2021 in Barcelona, one of the cities with more inhabitants of the Mediterranean, in collaboration with the Catalan Federation of Subaquatic Activities (FECDAS) and local social associations. This project counts with the support of the City Hall of Barcelona and the community of practices of biosciences &...

During the 20th and 21st centuries, the growing demand for marine resources by Mediterranean countries has led to a gradual increase in fishing pressure. As a result, both coastal and continental Mediterranean waters have suffered from the impacts of trawling and, to a lesser extent, of artisanal fishing with longlines, trammel nets and other minor...

Fishing is one of the human activities with the highest impact on seabeds. During the past hundred years it has gradually expanded to deeper waters, and almost all continental shelf and slopes worldwide have now been fished to some extent. In EU managed fishing grounds between 200 and 1000 m depth, it is estimated that bottom trawling has impacted...

Astrospartus mediterraneus (Risso, 1826) (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) is an emblematic Mediterranean species yet, it has few reports and hasn't received much attention from the marine scientific community to date. In the framework of a project to assess how to mitigate the impact of artisanal fishing on benthic communities at the Site of Community...

Cold-water coral (CWC) gardens, mainly composed of gorgonians, soft corals and black corals, support a highly diversified associated mobile fauna, representing a key benthic habitat on the Mediterranean continental shelf. These communities are vulnerable to bottom-contact fishing gears, including trawling and small-scale fishing. In the frame of a...

The negative effects from recurrent industrial fishing are widespread in the Mediterranean Sea waters, being the conservation status of the benthic ecosystems especially critical in the Catalan continental margin (NW Mediterranean Sea), which is identified as a hotspot of ecological importance due to the high concentration of endangered, threatened...

Cold-water gorgonians dwelling on the continental shelf are a common by-catch of bottom-contact fishing practices. Given the slow growth and limited recruitment of cold-water gorgonians, the impact of fishing activities may seriously compromise the conservation of the highly complex coral gardens communities. For this reason, the development of eff...