Abstract
Trends in global Fisheries indicate an overall decline in productivity of world fishery resources and almost 30% of fish stocks world-wide are still overfished. In Europe the amount of sustainably harvested stocks strongly increased over the last 10 years. Nonetheless, with a fast growing world population the pressure on fish stocks will remain high. As fish stocks can unfurl high productivity only in healthy marine ecosystems, it is extremely important to minimise the negative impacts of fishing on target species and communities as well as benthic ecosystems and habitats. First of all, fishing exerts mortality on target species and reduces their natural abundance. When a fishery targets more than a single species in mixed fisheries, similar responses may be observed for all species in focus. Fishing can also impact non-target as well as rare and sensitive species via unintended by-catch and has indirect effects on ecosystems and habitats via food web interactions and physical damage degrading habitat quality. In this chapter, we provide a short overview on the specific effects of fishing on target and by-catch species, communities as well as benthos and benthic habitats.
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