1. Bottom fishing using towed nets and dredges is one of the most widesprea
d sources of physical disturbance to the continental shelf seas throughout
the world. Previous studies suggest that degradation and ecosystem changes
have occurred in intensively fished areas. Nevertheless, to date it has bee
n difficult to attribute habitat and benthic community changes to fishing e
ffort at a spatial scale that is truly representative of commercial fishing
activities.
2. In this study we present convincing evidence that chronic bottom-fishing
disturbance has caused significant and widespread changes in the structure
of two distinct soft-sediment benthic assemblages and habitats.
3. Our study compared the benthic fauna found in areas that have been expos
ed to either high or low levels of bottom-fishing disturbance over the past
10 years. We were able to validate the fishing effort data in some areas u
sing scars in the shells of a long-lived bivalve mollusc (Glycymeris glycym
eris) which result from fishing disturbance. Shell scars occurred most freq
uently in bivalves collected from the area of highest fishing effort.
4. Multivariate analyses and the response of abundance/biomass curves indic
ated that chronic fishing has caused a shift from communities dominated by
relatively sessile, emergent, high biomass species to communities dominated
by infaunal, smaller-bodied fauna. Removal of emergent fauna has thus degr
aded the topographic complexity of seabed habitats in areas of high fishing
effort. The communities within these areas currently may be in an alternat
ive stable state.