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Analysis of the impact of prawn trawling on benthic species in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
Author(s) -
Toscas P. J.,
Faddy M. J.,
Burridge C. Y.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
environmetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.68
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-095X
pISSN - 1180-4009
DOI - 10.1002/env.663
Subject(s) - trawling , benthic zone , fishery , reef , great barrier reef , benthos , fishing , fauna , environmental science , geography , oceanography , ecology , geology , biology
Prawn trawling is a major fishing activity in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, generating millions of dollars for the Australian economy. It is important that appropriate management decisions are made to ensure the sustainability of the industry. An experimental study was conducted to quantify the recovery of seabed fauna after repeated trawling. Data from the study were composed of counts of observed benthic organisms on the seabed. The data were analysed using models based on a generalization of the simple Poisson process, which allows for over‐dispersion and under‐dispersion relative to the Poisson distribution. It was found that these models more faithfully described the data than more standard models such as the Poisson or negative binomial. It is argued that the use of inappropriate models can result in unreliable inferences, which in turn could lead to poor management decisions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.