RESPONSE OF BENTHIC COMMUNITIES AND SEDIMENT TO DIFFERENT REGIMENS OF FISHING DISTURBANCE

1. RESPONSE OF BENTHIC COMMUNITIES AND SEDIMENT • TO DIFFERENT REGIMENS OF FISHING DISTURBANCE • IN EUROPEAN COASTAL WATERS • Proposal No: QLRT-2001-00787 • RESPONSE M.Demestre

2. RESPONSE RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 QLRT-2001-787 M.Demestre

3. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 About the RESPONSE Project It is the aim of RESPONSE to improve our knowledge of the direct and indirect consequences of trawling activities and to understand the processes driving the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning at the level of the European coastal waters. M.Demestre

4. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Objectives and expected achievements • The mainscientific objective of RESPONSE is to • understand the effects of fishing perturbation on the • seabed by considering different approaches: •  Closed seasons and Closed areas. Cessation of fishing • activity: exploited areas closed to fishing practices •  Areas that experience different regimens of fishing disturbance. Different levels of fishing activity: • high fishing activity and low fishing activity M.Demestre

5. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Objectives and expected achievements RESPONSE will offer an opportunity to provide new perspectives and management options to the CFP in order to achieve the sustainability of marine resources and protection of biodiversity on marine communities.  The results can be used in the development of a Common Fishery and Environment Policy in the implementation of fishing regulation. They can help clarify the potential effectiveness of: 1) using different time limited closure periods 2) the most appropriate level of fishing effort M.Demestre

6. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Objectives • The specific research objectives of RESPPONSE: • 1. To identify Appropriate Study Areas (ASA’s) • 2. To estimate the fishing activity and fishing effort in • the ASA’s during a whole year • (WP1) M.Demestre

7. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Objectives • The specific research objectives... • 3. To analyse the physical and biological response of the • benthic ecosystem to different regimens of fishing • activity in the ASA’s • Multidisciplinary study considering physical and biological • ( WP 2 and WP3) • 4. To estimate the secondary production of suprabenthos • and infauna in the ASA’s ( WP 4) • 5. Synthesis and recommendations ( WP 5) M.Demestre

8. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workplan and methodology The workplan is broken down into6 workpackages.  WP1-WP5 are multidisciplinary, interrelated, complementary and progressive  WP6 is entirely devoted to the co-ordination and management of RESPONSE The overall methodology used will consist mainly of: 1) preparation, organisation and review work 2) exhaustive field work with a series of research cruises 3) laboratory work based on the processing of the samples 4) analysis of the data M.Demestre

9. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 M.Demestre

10. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages WP1. Estimation of fishing activity and fishing effort. Identification of the Appropriate Study Areas (ASA’s). • Experimental cruises will be performed to identify the ASA’s • within which commercial trawl fleets regularly exploit target • species. • Four selected areas undergo heavy exploitation and different • temporal fishing strategies. Control areas M.Demestre

11. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Mediterranean - Adriatic Sea 1 3 0 0 ' 1 3 ° 1 5 ' 1 3 ° 3 0 ' 1 3 ° 4 5 ' 4 1 5 4 4 ° 1 5 ' : 6 0 0 0 0 e t r l i t i c S a 4 4 ° 0 0 ' 4 4 ° 0 0 ' 0 ' P s a r o F a n o 4 3 ° 4 5 ' 4 3 ° 4 5 ' N S e n i g a l l i a W E A n c o n a S Irish Sea 1 3 ° 0 0 ' 1 3 ° 1 5 ' 1 3 ° 3 0 ' 1 3 ° 4 5 ' Mediterranean - Catalan Sea M.Demestre

12. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages WP1. Estimation of fishing activity and fishing effort. Identification of the Appropriate Study Areas (ASA’s). • The spatial and temporal variability of different regimes and trawl activity in • these ASA’s will be estimated • (i) Monitoring spatial distribution and temporal variability of the trawl fleet, • (ii) Mapping trawl tracks and estimating fishing intensity • (iii) Temporal variability of discards • (iv) Linking fishing effort variability with physical changes on the seabed • Historical data set of the spatial and temporal distribution of fish effort will • be analysed to determine an average yearly pattern M.Demestre

13. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages M.Demestre

14. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages • WP2. Response of the benthic communities and sediment • to cessation of fishery activity • The main objective is to study the response and recovery of both communities and sediments to different time periods of cessation fishing activity in real fishing grounds. • The North Sea • The Mediterranean Sea: Adriatic Sea and Catalan coast. • The physical issues: analysis of morphology, texture and composition • of sediments, water turbidity • The biological issues: changes in the fish community, epifauna and • infauna structure variability, and variations in the composition of • discards. M.Demestre

15. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages M.Demestre

16. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages M.Demestre

17. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages • WP3. Response of the benthic communities and sediment to different levels of fishing activity. • The aim of this WP is to determine the physical and biological response of both organism and sediments to different levels of fishing disturbance in real fishing grounds. • The Irish Sea • The Mediterranean Sea: Adriatic Sea and Catalan coast. • The physical issues: analysis of morphology, texture and • composition of sediments, water turbidity • The biological issues: changes in the fish community, epifauna • and infauna structure variability, and variations in the composition • of discards. M.Demestre

18. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages M.Demestre

19. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages M.Demestre

20. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 M.Demestre

21. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages • WP 4. Estimation of secondary production of the lowest trophic levels. • WP 4 will estimate the effects of different fishing strategies on Secondary Production for swimming suprabenthos and infauna • The analyses will be carried out: • at the level of population structure (size-frequency) for • target species representative of the studied community • on the whole community of organisms: changes in • biomass and abundance M.Demestre

22. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages WP5. Synthesis and Recommendations The main objective of this WP will be to bring together the working groups and to combine the results in the form of a synthesis. It consists of an analysis of the synthesis and recommendations combined with the results from the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and compare them with older data of fisheries, impact and benthos. M.Demestre

23. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages • WP5. Synthesis and Recommendations • Two basic and independent database are necessary to • organise and bank the : • a) Historical and existing data: fishing, benthos and impact • b) Data generated by RESPONSE. The project will generate • a large body of inter-related data. M.Demestre

24. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages WP5. Synthesis and Recommendations The expected results will be very important to the EU. The combination of the results from the different geographical areas will generate information in support of recommendations of the CFP about the response of benthic communities and sediments to the same kind of disturbance produced by different regimens of trawl activity. M.Demestre

25. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 Workpackages • WP6. Co-ordination and Management. • This WP is fully devoted to the aspects of organisation, • co-ordination and management: • To improve the efficiency of project development • To assure communication between the partners • Organise steering and Co-ordination meetings • Organise Workshops and Meetings to interface with end-users groups and policy-makers • Produce a Final Report including management recommendations • Dissemination of the results M.Demestre

26. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 M.Demestre

27. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 “Informal Cluster” INTERACT Interaction between environment and fisheries  The sustainable management of fisheries can only be achieved by understanding all the effects of such fisheries on the environment. The informal cluster will promote interactions between scientists rather than research activities.  In order to achieve these aims the work plan of the cluster is fully devoted to organise: 1) meetings between the projects involved 2) an open conference or workshop, to which external scientists will be invited. M.Demestre

28. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 September 2003 Co-ordination Meeting RESPONSE 1st-3rd September First Internal Report Organised by MSM, S.L. Alicante Second Cluster Meeting 4th & 5th September March 2004 Internal Meeting RESPONSE 22nd & 23rd WS 1 RESPONSE 24th, 25th & 26th Organised by CIBM PISA First Cluster Workshop 25th/26th March M.Demestre

29. RESPONSE QLRT-2001-787 August/September 2004 Co-ordination Meeting 30th-31st Aug. & 1st Sep. Second Internal Report Organised by AWI Bremerhaven January 2005 Internal Meeting RESPONSE 24th & 25th Second WS RESPONSE 26th, 27th & 28th Organised by UWB Bangor Second Cluster Workshop 27th/28th January August/September 2005 Co-ordination & Public Meeting RESPONSE Final Report Organised by CSIC-ICM Barcelona M.Demestre