OSPAR Common Indicator BH3 – Extent of Physical Damage to Predominant and Species Habitat (D6-C2): Disturbance

BH3 is currently limited to pressure caused by abrasion on the seafloor from mobile bottom contacting fishing gear (trawling). Pressure from other activities is in development. The scale of disturbance on the seafloor is a product of the habitats sensitivity and exposure to a defined pressure. These sources of information are combined to calculate the potential damage to a given seafloor habitat, and the trends across the six-year period to produce the impact matrix. The matrix is comprised of 10 categories characterising the physical disturbance and provides an estimate of the relative impact to the seafloor. The BH3 Assessment results in a spatial dataset displaying levels of disturbance as categories from 0-9 ( 0= no disturbance to 9 = high disturbance) on Ireland’s sea bed.