Coastal zone

Fish taxonomy-related abundance per unit area of the bed; Zoobenthos taxonomy-related counts; Fish taxonomy-related counts

Beam trawls

For the seaward harbour extension of the Port of Rotterdam ('Tweede Maasvlakte') in the Netherlands, approximately 220 million m3 sand was extracted between 2009 and 2013. In order to decrease the surface area of direct impact, the authorities permitted deep sand extraction, down to 20 m below the seabed. The colonization of demersal fish in a deep sand extraction site was investigated. Two sandbars were artificially created by selective dredging, copying naturally occurring meso-scale bedforms to increase habitat heterogeneity and increasing post-dredging benthic and demersal fish species richness and biomass. Measurements of benthos and fish have been carried out in and around the sand extraction site. The monitoring activities are additive to those already planned by Port of Rotterdam. First, the focus is more on the artificially created gradients within the pit and second, the focus is on settlement of benthos and on fish assemblages.

Https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wur.nl/10.1016/j.ecss.2014.05.029 (2014) Impact on demersal fish of a large-scale and deep sand extraction site with ecosystem-based landscaped sandbars, M.F. de Jong

Wageningen Marine Research, IJmuiden
Haringkade 1
IJmuiden

1976 CP
Netherlands