Long-lived species take longer to recover from the effects of bottom trawling by commercial fisheries according to recent research from Hiddink et al. Watch this video from PROJECT BENTHIS to discover more about the importance of longevity and benthic animal traits. Introduction by Associate Editor, Verena Trenkel.

Combining knowledge on the local benthos community and the results of this study, managers will now be able to use longevity as a proxy for trawling sensitivity to obtain an estimate of potential trawling impacts in their area of interest. This will help them to direct their mitigation efforts towards areas where large impacts are expected.

Read the article, Assessing bottom trawling impacts based on the longevity of benthic invertebrates, in Journal of Applied Ecology.