Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

Table of Contents - 2007 - Volume 87, Issue 05  


Short Communication

Anthropogenic impacts on the Corner Rise seamounts, north-west Atlantic Ocean

Rhian  Waller a1c1, Les  Watling a2a3, Peter  Auster a4 and Timothy  Shank a1
a1 Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
a2 Darling Marine Center, University of Maine, Walpole, ME 04573, USA
a3 Department of Zoology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
a4 National Undersea Research Center, University of Connecticut, Groton, CT 06340, USA

Article author query
waller r   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
watling l   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
auster p   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
shank t   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 

Abstract

Here we report the first direct underwater observations of extensive human-caused impacts on two remote seamounts in the Corner Rise complex (north-western Atlantic). This note documents evidence of anthropogenic damage on the summits of Kükenthal peak (on Corner Seamount) and Yakutat Seamount, likely resulting from a limited Russian fishery from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, highlighting how bottom trawling can have long-term detrimental effects on deep-water benthic fauna.

(Published Online October 18 2007)
(Received March 23 2007)
(Accepted September 4 2007)


Correspondence:
c1 Corresponding author, e-mail: rwaller@whoi.edu