RDE680 - Isles of Scilly trawling impact study

An area of sea to the east of the Isles of Scilly has not been trawled for over 10 years and is set to be re-opened to trawling following a byelaw implementation in the next few months. This presents a unique opportunity to conduct a before and after study on the impacts of re-opening an area which has not experienced the degrading impacts of bottom towed gear for over a decade. So far in summer 2023 and early summer 2024, the research team led by Associate Professor Emma Sheehan at University of Plymouth alongside IOS and Cornwall IFCA conducted the before component of this study, collecting data of the habitats and biota using towed and baited video.

This project is to complete the year one component of this project by facilitating the collection of additional video data, plus sediment and infaunal samples, as well as cover the cost of analysing the video data and writing up the end of year report.