Abstract
Background and objectivesThe environmental effects of static gear fishing include habitat-level effects such as permanent changes to the physical environment and the structure of the benthic and epibenthic communities. Ecosystems subjected to prolonged exposure to pressure from static gear may undergo permanent changes and may never regain their prior ‘unfished’ state even if the fishing pressure is removed entirely. These long-term changes to physical structure of benthic habitats have implications for benthic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Despite this, the understanding of habitat and static fishing gear interactions is limited- with most studies focusing on the impact of mobile fishing gear. The rise of ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM), where managers and decision-makers manage target species within their environmental context while protecting essential ecosystem services and components, has led to an increased demand for ecosystem-level reference points. A systematic review could provide clarification on the short and long-term impacts of commercial static gear fishing on benthic community diversity.MethodsThis review will examine primary studies on the relationship between static fishing gear, intensity, and benthic biodiversity to answer the primary question ‘How do different types of static fishing gear affect benthic species richness and abundance?’. A structured search will be conducted in English. The search terms used to find relevant data to answer the research question were chosen specifically for this review and were generated using the R package litsearchr. Captured articles will be screened against pre-defined eligibility criteria. The internal and external validity of remaining studies will be classified using a pre-defined framework. Studies meeting validity will be used for data extraction. Data to be extracted includes data on study design, intervention, study results, habitat and geographical context. Outcome data (such as sample sizes, means and measures of variation such as confidence intervals, standard deviations, and standard errors) will also be extracted. Information on effect modifiers will also be collected where available as well as metadata on study methodologies and general article identifiers. Data will be used for both narrative and quantitative synthesis techniques.
Highlights
Background and objectivesThe environmental effects of static gear fishing include habitat-level effects such as permanent changes to the physical environment and the structure of the benthic and epibenthic communities
The rise of ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM), where managers and decision-makers manage target species within their environmental contexts while protecting essential ecosystem services and components has led to an increased demand for ecosystem-level
Most studies exploring the impact of fishing gear on the marine environment have been centered around the impact of mobile fishing gear
Summary
This review will follow the guidelines set out by the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence [12] and the ROSES reporting standards [13]. Shorter search terms will be used where character limits are in place or—as is the case for google scholar— where the database or search engine is limited in its ability to combine multiple Boolean values, for example: Fish* AND (fixed OR net OR line OR passive OR pot* OR static OR trap*) AND (abundance OR “community composition” OR condition OR diversity OR mortality OR recovery rate OR richness) Both the longer and shorter search strings were tested against a set of fifteen articles (see Additional file 2) which had been identified by subject experts and stakeholders as being highly relevant to answer the research questions. Stakeholder consultation, combined with a web search of organizations involved in fisheries management and environmental conservation were used to identify the following organizational websites which will be searched for additional studies not available through bibliographic databases:. To avoid bias within the results reviewers carrying out this stage will not have published in this research area
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