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What is a Coastal Shelf Fishing Pressure Indicator?

What is Coastal Shelf Fishing Pressure? The Coastal Shelf Fishing Pressure indicator measures the intensity of gears such as trawlers that operate on the shelf. Benthic Trawling Trawler A fishing method that targets fish and invertebrates that inhabit ocean floor (or benthic) ecosystems. A fishing vessel equipped with large heavy nets that are dragged across the living seafloor. Seafloor/Shelf Effective Destructive It catches large quantities of cod, scallops, shrimp, and flounder. This fishing method is considered one of the most destructive fishing gear in use today. It breaks off brittle bottom flora and fauna such as sponges and corals. Marine species such as turtles that try to escape the gear suffer stress, injury, and quite frequently, death. How do we know? Data Collection The Sea Around Us spatial database is based on several major data sources, such as: • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) capture fisheries and its regional bodies • the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) • STATLANT database • the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) • data provided by Canada, the United States, and other governments Calculation Method Sea nautical miles 200 EEZ Land Catch from EEZ Area Trawling and Dredging Gear by Country by Year The Coastal Shelf Fishing Pressure Indicator The catches in each spatial cell are associated with the appropriate fishing gear code to determine the catch from trawling and dredging gear. An Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is a seazone The 2014 EPI calculates the prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law & the Sea over which a state has special rights over its marine resources within 200 nautical miles from its coast. In some cases, countries have rights to their continental shelf if it extends beyond those 200 nautical miles. score for every country and ranks countries based on the scores. Why does it matter? Intensive practices like seafloor trawling affect many species and their habitats. UNWANTED WANTED It's estimated that 40.4 percent of 40% all global catches are bycatch, the unwanted sea life that gets caught in fisheries operations. 10:1 In some areas, juvenile 'trash fish' can outweigh the catch of targeted shrimp by more than 10 to 1 in shrimp fisheries. Environmental References Performance • World inventory of fisheries. Destructive fishing practices. Issues Fact Sheets. Text by S.M. Garcia. In: FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department [online]. Rome. Updated 27 May 2005. http://www.fao.org/fishery/topic/12353/en. • Sea Around Us Project. http://www.seaaroundus.org/ • Davies, R.W.D., Cripps S., Nickson A., & G. Porter (2009). "Defining and Estimating Global Marine Fisheries Bycatch. Marine Policy 33, 661-672 • Tackling fisheries bycatch. World Wildlife Fund (WWF). http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/coraltriangle/solutions/tackling_fisheries_bycatch/ Index •l•

What is a Coastal Shelf Fishing Pressure Indicator?

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This infographic is from the 2014 Environmental Performance Index. The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks how well countries perform on high-priority environmental issues in two broad policy ...

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