Defining ecological indicators of trawling disturbance when everywhere that can be fished is fished: A Mediterranean case study

Selecting indicators of the response of the benthic community to fishing effort restrictions is important for testing the efficacy of management actions that seek to minimise ecosystem degradation. Components of epifaunal communities are sensitive to trawling, and concordant measurements of trawling effort can be used to establish a link between response and impact variables. Trawling effort on Mediterranean fishing grounds can be assessed, but the lack of data from communities inhabiting these areas makes establishing the response–impact relationship difficult. This study addresses this challenge by investigating benthic communities from the NW Mediterranean subjected to a gradient of fishing effort, and confirms that indicators based on functional components of epibenthos can be a useful tool to describe the response of communities to disturbance across habitat types.