Quantification of epibenthic fauna in areas subjected to different regimes of scallop dredging activity in Lyme Bay, Devon

Summary

The aim of the study was to establish baseline conditions for the abundance and mean size of four species of interest (Pink seafans Eunicella verrucosa, dead men’s fingers Alcyonium digitatum, ross coral Pentapora fascialis and king scallop Pecten maximus) across Lyme Bay shortly after the implementation of four voluntary Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) inside which scallop dredging stopped in September 2006. The research undertaken was the initial stage of a proposed longer-term project to quantify the effectiveness of the reserves in the protection of the reef communities, to examine potential recovery rates in areas that had been exposed to scallop dredging, and to determine if there were fishery spill-over effects arising from increases in scallops within the areas protected from fishing. IPR for this report belongs to the University of Wales, Bangor.

Author

• Project team: Dr Jan G. Hiddink,
• Prof. Michel J. Kaiser,
• Dr Hilmar Hinz,
• Ms Amy Ridgeway

Publication Reference No.

A047

Publication date

01 August 2008