Sustainable Fishing in the Arctic

The entrance of Greenland’s fisheries (cold water prawn and halibut) into the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification scheme has highlighted the paucity of our knowledge of the impacts of bottom-trawling on deep-sea benthic ecosystems in the Arctic. Based on photographic, video, bycatch and environmental data, our collaborative project with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) produces high-resolution information about benthic communities, their community composition and the impacts of bottom trawling. Furthermore, the project will allow for a critical evaluation of the role of the MSC certification scheme in fishery governance, with wider applications for the management of deep-sea fisheries and the players involved in the MSC certification scheme.

A glimpse of the sea bed in the deep sea at >1000m depth off West Greenland: A Grenadier fish in company with sea anemones and polychaete worms (white tubes).