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User:MPeck15/Ocean dredging

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Ocean dredging was an oceanography technique introduced in the nineteenth century and developed by naturalist Edward Forbes.

History

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Illustration by naturalist Edward Forbes (edited by Robert Godwin-Austen) for Natural History of the European Seas. The cartoon depicts ocean dredging with a beam trawl.

Edward Forbes would lay out the dredged material on the ship deck to examine, preserve and study it. The practice was chronicled in a remembrance of Forbes by William Jerdan in his 1866 book Men I Have Known.[1]

Seafloor effects

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Ocean dredging can negatively affect benthic ecosystems.[2] As dredging equipment is moved along the seafloor, habitat-forming epifauna is damaged or removed. As emergent corals, sponges, and seagrasses are damaged there is less habitat complexity for juvenile fishes to find protection in.[3] Dredging also removes the sand waves in which juvenile Atlantic cod settle.[3]

References

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  1. ^ Jerdan, William, "Men I Have Known, by William Jerdan, Corresponding Member of the Real Academia de la Historia of Spain, Etc. Etc. (London, 1866)", Lives of the Great Romantics, Part I, Volume 3, doi:10.4324/9780429348211-51/men-known-william-jerdan-corresponding-member-real-academia-de-la-historia-spain-etc-etc-london-1866-william-jerdan, retrieved 2022-12-03
  2. ^ Sofonia, Jeremy J.; Unsworth, Richard K. F. (2010-01-15). "Development of water quality thresholds during dredging for the protection of benthic primary producer habitats". Journal of Environmental Monitoring. 12 (1): 159–163. doi:10.1039/B904986J. ISSN 1464-0333.
  3. ^ a b Lindholm, James B.; Auster, Peter J.; Ruth, Matthias; Kaufman, Les (2001-04). "Modeling the Effects of Fishing and Implications for the Design of Marine Protected Areas: Juvenile Fish Responses to Variations in Seafloor Habitat". Conservation Biology. 15 (2): 424–437. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.2001.015002424.x. ISSN 0888-8892. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)