Marine habitat mapping to support the use of conservation and anti-trawl structures in Kep Province, Cambodia

Strong, James ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8603-097X; Wardell, Catherine; Haïssoune, A; Jones, A L; Coals, L; Birchenough, Silvana. 2022 Marine habitat mapping to support the use of conservation and anti-trawl structures in Kep Province, Cambodia. ICES Journal of Marine Science. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac001

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac001

Abstract/Summary

The marine habitats within the Kep Archipelago, Cambodia, support species of conservation importance and commercial value. Despite the area being designated a Marine Fisheries Management Area (equivalent to a Marine Protected Area locally), illegal trawling has continued to damage vulnerable habitats within the region. To augment the protection of the designated area, Conservation and Anti Trawl Structures (CATS) have been deployed locally. These structures can snare the nets of illegal trawlers and provide a hard substratum for coral colonization. A sidescan sonar survey and ground truthing campaign was used to precisely locate the  CATS deployed and produce maps of the important benthic habitats in the area. Due to the challenging coastal environment and minimal available infrastructure, this study used small, rechargeable or low-power ( V), and low-cost habitat mapping equipment to map the approximate extent of several benthic habitats of conservation interest. The area and type of habitat protected by CATS has been estimated by combining the marine habitat map with the precise locations of the deployed CATS. It is hoped that this information will help inform local management decisions, such as optimizing the placement of future CATS.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac001
Programmes:	NOC Programmes > Ocean BioGeosciences
ISSN:	1054-3139
Date made live:	09 Mar 2022 16:05 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532216

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac001

Programmes:

NOC Programmes > Ocean BioGeosciences

ISSN:

1054-3139

Date made live:

09 Mar 2022 16:05 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532216