Map showing sampling locations.
This information would be used as part of a preliminary assessment to explore the potential benefits to inshore benthic habitats of the Inshore Fishing Order (1989) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2004/276/contents/made, which forbids the use of all mobile fishing gear including trawls (e.g. beam trawls, otter trawls) Danish seine, purse seine, or similar nets, ring nets or dredges (e.g suction dredge, hydraulic dredge, scallop drags and clam dredges), in a number of lochs, estuaries and coastal areas of Scotland.
Mobile fishing equipment is widely seen as a very destructive method of fishing. Benthic trawls and dredges indiscriminately catch, non-target species or under-sized fish and invertebrates, and destroy plants that are important in maintaining the benthic ecosystem. There is evidence to suggest that long-term use of this type of equipment has a major impact on the benthic community through direct mortality and habitat alteration.
Differences between seabeds where a) mobile fishing gear is prohibited and b) fishing methods are unregulated.
This investigation was
comprised of a geophysical seabed habitat survey coupled with benthic
macrofaunal community analysis (via grab sampling and ROV video
transects). St Andrews Bay (where the ban on mobile gear is strictly
enforced) was compared with nearby (unregulated) Largo Bay.