Fisheries Role Play Simulation

Joint Fact Finding Simulation - A New Discovery in the Fishery

BACKGROUND

• It is widely understood that mobile fishing gear (scallop and oyster dredges, otter trawls, beam trawls, and roller-rigged trawls, the latter three used for harvesting groundfish) impacts the seafloor.
• What is not well understood is how that impact effects essential fish habitat (EFH). Legislation requires that the ecological function of habitat must be protected to support fish production throughout the lifecycle of fish (in this case groundfish). Although there has been more research done on the effects of mobile fishing gear on hard bottom surfaces than on its effects on soft bottom surfaces, it is still meager.
• Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (HAPC) is a special designation within EFH for areas that play an important role in the lifecycle of federally managed fish species that are especially vulnerable to degradation from human activities, especially fishing. HAPC designations are based on at least one of the following (Appendix: Essential Fish Habitat, Habitat Areas of Concern, January 2002):
  • Importance of ecological function of the habitat
  • Extent to which the habitat is sensitive to human-induced environmental degradation
  • Whether activities will stress the habitat type
  • Rarity of the habitat.
• Much of the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank is fished using otter trawls, beam trawls, and roller rigged trawls, which come in contact with the sea floor. The implication is that mobile fishing gear disturbs the habitat and damages the epifauna (Appendix: NAP chapter 3, ‘Rates of Recovery,’ 2002).
• Sandy bottom seafloor depths of greater than 60-65 meters tend to be immobile sands since these areas have a lower wave energy level. In general, this means that beyond this threshold the area is not exposed to strong tidal and storm currents, which keeps the habitat influx. Areas below this threshold are considered mobile sands, and are affected more by currents. Generally speaking, mobile sands fluctuate more than immobile. These in flux areas tend to regenerate epifauna faster than immobile areas because organisms are adapted to disturbances. Conversely, epifauna living on immobile sands are not well adapted to disturbances and take longer to regenerate under such conditions.
• Soft bottom floors seem to recover faster from habitat disturbances than hard bottom. Studies suggest it may take from several months for a soft bottom epifaunal habitat to recover, to several decades for hard bottom habitat to recover. However, recovery rates appear to be slowest in more stable and structurally complex habitats, while in mobile sandy sediment they are faster.

Download Complete Role Play Simulation Instructions pdf (84kB)