Turbot in the Celtic Sea, Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coast, Beam trawl

Turbot in Division VIIe, f, j, h and sub area VIII and IXa has been scored as high risk. This is because turbot has a medium vulnerability score and the population trend is unknown due to the limited information available.

The management of Turbot in Division VIIe, f, h, j and sub area VIII and IXa has been scored a high risk. This is because there are no management decisions or assessments of stock status for turbot, there is only minimal data being collected and there are no specific management measures in place to restrict harvesting. However, there are management measures in place to control effort in the fisheries.

The bycatch risk of this fishery has been scored a high risk. This is because beam trawls have the potential to take relatively high quantities of bycatch of non-target and vulnerable species (> 30% of catch weight), including demersal elasmobranchs and protected, endangered and threatened (e.g. sharks and rays) species in certain circumstances.  Absolute levels of discards across all fleets have gradually decreased since 2002 and the incoming EU landings obligation is intended to reduce discarding further (Catchpole et al., 2011).

The habitat risk of this fishery has been scored a high risk. This is because beam trawls interact with the seabed, modifying bottom topography including damage and removal of some biogenic features and interacting with vulnerable marine habitats and benthic communities.  However, the risk due to damage to vulnerable marine habitats is likely to be reduced given that most of the footprint of the gear occurs on core fishing grounds.   Some spatial management is in place and is continually being developed, which will restrict the footprint of this gear on the seabed. However, there remains some uncertainty about the location of some sensitive seabed habitats so these remain at risk.