Bottom trawling
The paper that has me smiling today is actually a chapter in a book. My maritime archaeologist collaborator, Calvin, came out of our Stellwagen Telepresence Project in 2019-2020 with a mission to address management of shipwrecks in the sanctuary. As you might remember, we spent two summers on a small boat in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, collecting ROV video footage from historically important shipwrecks. One of the biggest results from the whole project was that the primary threat to Stellwagen shipwrecks is entanglement of fishing nets.
Fishing nets don't just get entangled on shipwrecks; they damage them in the process. Our research revealed that the stern of the famous steamship Portland had been ripped off by a fishing net sometime between 2009 and 2019. Plus, fishing nets alter the biological communities that live on shipwrecks, leading to lower biodiversity.
Given this information, you might jump to the solution that many have before: ban fishing in the sanctuary!
That seems easy enough, right? Right?
Actually, no. Here's the catch: Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary doesn't just hold a treasure trove of history; it is home to some of the most productive fishing grounds in New England. You can't just ban fishing in the sanctuary - that would decimate the local economy! Thousands would lose their livelihoods in an instant! Banning fishing is a non-starter. Plus, sustainable fishing is baked into the sanctuary's charter. Sanctuary managers are faced with a challenging dual mandate: protect natural and cultural heritage while permitting sustainable fishing in the sanctuary. Balancing the two sides of that mandate requires a lot of outreach, a lot of education, and a lot of communication between fishermen and scientists. That's exactly what our chapter is about.
As it turns out, Calvin and I aren't the only people who are concerned about the impact of fishing nets on shipwrecks. The Ocean Foundation recently put together a 3-book series on threats to ocean heritage, with one entire volume focusing on bottom trawling. The book was the perfect home for our chapter about the management challenges facing Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. I'm glad that we were able to contribute to the book.
Threats to our ocean heritage: bottom trawling is actually an open-access book, so anyone in the world can download it. See our work and the contributions of other authors here:
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