Anthropogenic Impacts on the Corner Rise Seamounts, NW Atlantic

The removal of deep-water coral and other large biogenic structures as a consequence of deep-sea fisheries is well documented for seamounts in the SW Pacific and is presently the focus for strong conservation measures across the globe. As continental shelf fish stocks decline and fisheries regulations become stricter, there is continual movement of fisheries vessels into the unregulated and unreported high seas making the true impact hard to determine. As part of a broader study on deep-water corals of the North Atlantic, we investigated five seamounts in the Corner Rise complex using the ROV Hercules, and documented dramatic evidence of large- scale damage on the summits of K¨{u}kenthal peak (on Corner Seamount) and Yakutat Seamount likely primarily resulting from a small-scale Soviet fishery. For twenty years (1976-1996) there was significant effort expended in the area of the Corner Rise Seamounts using both pelagic and bottom trawls and though many fish species were recorded in this fishery, there is no information on invertebrate bycatch. This presentation documents damage observed to the Corner Rise Seamounts during the Deep Atlantic Stepping Stones cruise, August 2005.