OSPAR Common Indicator BH3 – Extent of Physical Damage to Predominant and Species Habitat (D6-C2): Pressure Analysis

The main activities driving pressures on benthic habitats, based on Commission Directive 845/2017 are: extraction of living resources (fish and shellfish harvesting); transport; extraction of non-living resources; production of energy; and cultivation of living resources (marine aquaculture). For example, data from the Offshore Fishing Activity Monitoring is factored into this spatial assessment as a pressure. The predominant fishing activity associated with abrasion on the seafloor is demersal trawling and dredging. The Offshore Fishing Activity Monitoring dataset includes several steps and is defined in the OSPAR VMS and Logbook data call serviced through the ICES secretariat. Trawling effort is classified as an intensity scale using the effort data as swept area ratios (SAR’s). The intensity is scaled using 5 categories ranging from none to very high. An area fished more than 3 times is classed as being highly disturbed.