What is the effect of fishing on habitat?
Fishing can significantly impact the physical and structural properties of a habitat, which can translate into changes in epifaunal communities. Mortality of bottom fauna caused by bottom trawling is particularly high for large-sized infauna, while smaller organisms are usually less affected. Hence, diversity, abundance, size structure and the production of benthic communities can be greatly affected, and with that productivity of the system and food sources of the targeted fish resources. Moreover, structural disturbance of the habitat can be significant, especially in vulnerable habitat types such as seamount coral systems. Benthic invertebrate bycatch can account for up to 90% of commercial catches, including undersized target species and non-target species. Bottom trawling can therefore lead to changes in community composition and size structure. However, the impacts of bottom trawling depend on the character of the gear being used, how that gear is deployed, the nature of the habi
