Introduction
Visions of the Southern North Sea
Criterion | Now vision | Then vision |
---|---|---|
Sedimentation | Reduced function as indicated by relatively turbid water column and mobile sediments, in part due to high rates of demersal trawlinga
| Sediment deposition and stabilization facilitated by benthic communities resulting in a relatively transparent water columnf
|
Filtration | Reduced filtration capacity due to loss of epibenthic suspension feedersb (organisms that feeds on particulate organic matter suspended in the water column)c
| High filtration capacity; relatively high proportion of filter and suspension feeders in benthic communities; abundant coastal beds of Ostrea edulis plus a large bed on the Oyster Groundsb,f,g
|
Primary production (PP) | Limited benthic primary production due to turbidity and mobile sediments; pelagic zones highly productive but limited by light availabilityd
| Potential for high benthic primary production due to good water transparency; pelagic production probably nutrient-limitedh
|
Secondary production | Predominance of deposit feeders, and predators and scavengers feeding on moribund organisms and trawling discards; long-lived species relatively raree
| Predominance of epibenthic species, especially suspension feeders that extract particulate organic carbon from water column; long-lived species relatively abundant |
Trophic complexity | Simplified benthic food webs; higher proportions of small-bodied, fast-growing, and/or opportunistic speciesb
| Complex benthic food webs with a greater abundance of epibenthic; higher proportions of large-bodied and/or long-lived speciesi
|
Nutrient exchange | Rapid return of nutrients to water column following mineralization by benthic microbes, facilitated by sediment resuspensione
| Benthic communities intercept nutrients, modulating their return to the water column and keeping pelagic primary productivity nutrient-limitedi
|
Recruitment | Species favouring open habitats and/or perturbation regimes recruit best; low diversity of benthic fish species; predominance of fast-growing species | Complex benthic habitats support recruitment by providing nursery habitats; high diversity of benthic fish species includes slow-growing species and long-lived speciesf
|
Substantiation of the Then Vision
Current Knowledge of the Adverse Impacts of Fisheries on Benthic Communities
Anecdotal Evidence of Trawling Damage in the Nineteenth Century
Quote | Source | |
---|---|---|
1 | [narrow-meshed nets] proceeding fry of fish are killed, while [the trawl net] destroys the spawn, and even the bait on which fish live” | Beaujon (1884, p. 153) |
2 | A great deal of the destruction of immature fish by the trawler was caused by the small mesh in the cod end of the net, owing to the ground-chain nipping the ground, and so taking everything into the net | Anon (1884, p. 10) |
3 | … the reason some grounds were not so prolific as formerly was, first, in consequence of their being overfished; secondly, because of the destruction of the food of the fishes; and thirdly, through the destruction of the fry | Anon (1884, p. 27) |
4 | … because in the passage of the trawl over the ground, no matter what came in the way it was bound to catch it, and the speed the vessel … caused the meshes to be drawn so tightly that it was impossible for the small fish to escape | Anon (1884, pp. 31–32) |
5 | … he came to the conclusion that the continual trawling and ploughing up of the ground caused worms and small shell-fish to come to the surface, so as to afford more food to the fish, and that … some good was produced as well as evil | Anon (1884, p. 32) |
6 | [the trawl] cleans away everything before it | |
7 | ..the result of the process has been that the whole coast of Durham, Northumberland and Yorkshire has been destroyed, till there is nothing left but a mere remnant | |
8 | Q. [what] did you see … caught? A. Spawn, coals, boots, shoes, shirts, all kinds of rubbish; little trays [trees] that the fish resorts among; If you saw a little coral, I believe the bottom of the sea is something similar. There is a herbage that the fish live among; it is like a plantation at the bottom… | |
9 | …when we used to go for haddocks we used to get all kinds of curiosities, little trays [trees] of all sorts, and every description of shells, and what not. We cannot get anything on the lines now. We used to get things they called coxcombs, and the trawlers have swept them all away the same as they have swept away all the best fishing…b
| |
10 | …they have taken away the upper crust of the ground. And, mark you, it is the upper crust that the clams and scallops live amongst …. Q. What was this crust? A. The ground that the scallops live amongst. It is just a ground made up of broken shells, and the like of these sort of things; and underneath that is mud | |
11 | The fish have been taken away by the trawlers; the trawlers have destroyed the ground to which these fish came. Q. You think they destroyed it? A. They dragged up the herbage that these fish came to feed upon at certain seasons of the year. The haddock is as fond of dulse [seaweed] and what grows on the bottom as of any food.c
| |
12 | … the ground abounded with small shell fish, particularly the cray fish, which is the chief food of large fish … Now the ground is cleaned of this sort of shell fish by trawling, and now we have no large fish because their food is all taken away |