Experimental Fishing Impact Recovery Data from 2015 Fladen Survey

April 2015 data on seabed taxa counts and biomass from a research survey on the RV Cefas Endeavour. The dataset contains total counts and biomass in grams of taxa identified from 4m beam trawl samples, collected from three experimental treatment boxes. The data was gathered by the Government Digital Service to simulate commercial beam trawling operations.

Use Cases

• Modeling the impact of commercial beam trawling on seabed communities based on the experimental treatment data.
• Analyzing the recovery of benthic taxa biomass and counts following simulated fishing disturbance.
• Comparing the ecological effects across different experimental treatment boxes mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Data originates from a controlled experimental research survey conducted in April 2015.
• Samples were collected using a standardized method (two 4m beam trawls in parallel).
• Focuses on three specific experimental treatment boxes, allowing for comparative analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Samples collected using two 4m beam trawls in parallel from three experimental treatment boxes during a research survey.

Time Range

April 2015

Freshness

Data is from a single survey in April 2015; update frequency is unknown.

Geography

Fladen area (North Sea), inferred from the dataset title.