Biogeosciences, 10, 529–539, 2013 www.biogeosciences.net/10/529/2013/ Biogeosciences doi:10.5194/bg-10-529-2013 © Author(s) 2013. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Putative fishery-induced changes in biomass and population size structures of demersal deep-sea fishes in ICES Sub-area VII, Northeast Atlantic Ocean J. A. Godbold1,2, D. M. Bailey3, M. A. Collins4, J. D. M. Gordon5, W. A. Spallek6, and I. G. Priede1 1Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire AB41 6AA, UK 2National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, University of Southampton, Waterfront Campus, European Way, SO14 3ZH, UK 3Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Graham Kerr Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK 4Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Government House, Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, FlQQ 1ZZ, UK 5Scottish Marine Institute, Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban PA37 1QA, UK 6Faculty of Earth Science and Environmental Management, University of Wroclaw, pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wroclaw, Poland Correspondence to: J. A. Godbold (
[email protected]) Received: 17 July 2012 – Published in Biogeosciences Discuss.: 10 August 2012 Revised: 17 December 2012 – Accepted: 25 December 2012 – Published: 25 January 2013 Abstract. A time series from 1977–1989 and 2000–2002 of biomass distribution of the demersal fish population as a scientific trawl surveys in the Porcupine Seabight and adja- whole, species-specific impacts are highly variable. It is clear cent abyssal plain of the NE Atlantic was analysed to as- that changes in population structure can extend beyond the sess changes in demersal fish biomass and length frequency.