Implications of using alternative methods of vessel monitoring system (VMS) data analysis to describe fishing activities and impacts

Understanding the spatial distribution and intensity of fishing activity is a prerequisite for estimating fishing impacts on seabed biota and habitats. Vessel monitoring system data provide information on fishing activity at large spatial scales. However, successive position records can be too infrequent to describe the complex movements fishing vessels make. High-frequency position data were collected to evaluate how polling frequency and the method of analysis influenced the estimates of fishing impact on the seabed and associated epifaunal communities. Comparisons of known positions with predictions from track interpolation revealed that the performance of interpolation depended on fleet behaviour. Descriptions and indicators of fishing intensity were influenced significantly by the analytical methods (track reconstruction, density of position records) and grid-cell resolution used for the analysis. These factors can lead to an underestimation of fishing impact on epifaunal communities. It is necessary to correct for such errors to quantify the effects of fishing on various ecosystem components and hence to inform ecosystem-based management. Polling at intervals of 30 min would provide a desirable compromise between achieving precise estimates of fishing impacts on the seabed and minimizing the cost of data collection and handling

Distribution and behaviour of Common Scoter Melanitta nigra relative to prey resources and environmental parameters

Offshore wind farms are proposed around the coast of the UK and elsewhere in Europe. These sites tend to be located in shallow coastal waters that often coincide with areas used by over-wintering Common Scoter Melanitta nigra. A large-scale study was undertaken to ascertain the relationship of the spatial distribution of Common Scoter in Liverpool Bay with prey abundance and environmental and anthropogenic variables that may affect foraging efficiency. The highest numbers of Common Scoter coincided with sites that had a high abundance and biomass of bivalve prey species. There was strong evidence that the maximum observed biomass of bivalves occurred at a mean depth of c. 14 m off the Lancashire coast and at c. 8 m off the north Wales coast. This coincided well with the distribution of Common Scoter at Shell Flat, but less well with the distribution of birds off North Wales. Common Scoters were observed in lowest numbers or were absent from areas in which anthropogenic disturbance (shipping activity) was relatively intense, even when these areas held a high prey biomass. Commercial fishing activities did not appear to contribute to this disturbanc