The Prestige oil tanker sank in November 2002 and leaked around 60 000 mt. of heavy oil (type M-100) into the
sea. Immediately after the accident, closed areas were established. Among the fleets affected by the closures were
four of the most important in ICES Division VIIIc and Sub-division IXa North (bottom trawl, pair trawl, purse seine
targeting sardine and hand line targeting mackerel) as they exploit considerable resources, some outside
biological safety limits. A fall in effort was observed in all of them, mainly in the first quarter and in sub-divisions
VIIIc West and IXa North, although it failed to lead to a very large reduction in the total annual effort of each of the
fleets, with the exception of hand line. Pair trawlers can make two types of fishing trip, but differences in specific
composition among the three years analysed were not found in either of them. In the case of trawl, five kinds of
fishing trips were identified, and changes were only found in the type that targets Norway lobster, hake, megrim
and monk (HMMN), with a fall in the presence of Norway lobster
