Anti-trawling devices are a specific kind of artificial reef. Trawling is a controversial fishing practice which has attracted environmental, legal, and political objections. Anti-trawling devices have been invented, manufactured, and deployed to damage trawlers' nets and thus slow them down, force them to stop operating, or force them elsewhere. They are usually large concrete blocks with metal hooks or blades embedded in their tops. Anti-trawling devices are being used by environmental groups, fishermen, and sometimes even by governments.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]
As with artificial reefs in general,[13][14][15] the actual effectiveness of anti-trawling reefs is understudied.[14][15] AnAustralian Government analysis anticipates very high costs and difficulty if they are removed.[16] If they are removed, however, they expect:[16]
They recommend changing permitting processes to account for the cost, and for whether removal is even feasible.[16]
Conclusions: This review revealed a very limited evidence base for how structural modifications and marine urban sprawl can affect fish recruitment. Thus, there is a substantial mismatch between stakeholder needs and research evidence. Further, the impact and ecological performance of artificial structures depend both on context and species. Clearly, there is a need for more research on the subject, especially on long-term consequences at larger spatial scales.
Their use as a tool in coastal management has many general purposes including ... the prevention of trawling in Europe [4]. Artificial reef reviews do exist [5] although varying in their focus and objectivity. ... Number of papers ... Anti-trawling ... 5 ... These respective case studies refer to the use of vessels and concrete modules for the prevention of illegal trawling in the Mediterranean Sea ...
4.1.1.1. Artificial reefs. Artificial reefs are one of the earliest approaches to greening gray infrastructure ... providing multiple additional benefits. These benefits include blocking ... the use of trawling nets ... (Baine 2001). ... The effectiveness of artificial reefs is debated (Macura et al. 2019), and even when their stated primary objectives have been achieved, they come with negative impacts: They are expensive (Pioch & Doumenge 2010), and distortions or abuses of the concept have offered pretext for ocean dumping or for uncritical equation of any artificial structure to a reef (Macdonald 1994). However, the lessons learned have laid the foundations for new adaptive and biomimetic design concepts (Airoldi et al. 2005, Dafforn et al. 2015a, O'Shaughnessy et al. 2020), which aim to integrate some of the scopes of artificial reef design into structures built for other primary functions (Firth et al. 2014, Perkol-Finkel et al. 2012).
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