While catch levels overall can appear relatively stable, a number of species have undergone such regional declines that their fisheries have collapsed. Alfonsino fisheries Selleck PF-562271 off the Azores and Corner Rise seamounts in the 1970s by the former Soviet Union lasted only a few years, and a spawning location for blue ling in the North Atlantic yielded 8000 t in one year before ceasing as catches dropped rapidly [80]. In the western North Atlantic, the three species of wolffish, and cusk, have reported declines in stock size of over 90% within the time period of three generations, and 38% of deep-sea bottom fish species in that area could be “at-risk”

based on the extent of population declines in surveys [29]. Yet off New Zealand, oreo fisheries have had relatively stable landings for an extended period, and current stock MAPK inhibitor status for both major commercial species

is estimated to be around 50% of unfished levels [36]. Hence, fisheries can be sustained where life history characteristics are known and appropriate management is applied to limit catches and/or effort levels. Precious corals are caught in some deep-sea fishing operations. They have been sought for use as adornments for millennia in Mediterranean countries. Today, black, pink/red and gold corals (Antipathidae, Corallidae and Zoanthidae) are collected for the jewelry trade in the Mediterranean, India, Japan, Pacific Islands, Hawaii and the Caribbean. In the Pacific Island region, collecting is generally done selectively using scuba or submersibles, and the precious coral “beds” are protected from overfishing [105] and [106], though lack of profitability has halted this Liothyronine Sodium fishery in recent years. Deep-sea corals are also landed in large quantities

as unwanted bycatch in other fisheries [107], [108] and [109]. For example, between 1990 and 2002, Alaskan fisheries, primarily in the Aleutian Islands, landed approximately 4186 t of corals and sponges, with ∼90% removed by bottom trawling [110]. In British Columbia, between 1996 and 2002, at least 15 hauls took over 4 t apiece. Orange roughy trawling on the South Tasman Rise seamounts (adjacent to the Australia EEZ) landed 1.6 t of coral per hour during the first year of the fishery (1997–1998). Indeed, in the first year they took over 1100 t of corals, a coral bycatch about 25% of the orange roughy catch [107]. Coral bycatch is highest when trawling moves into a previously unfished area, then rapidly declines. From a conservation perspective, therefore, reduced coral bycatch is not necessarily a good sign. Although short-term effects of bottom trawling are now widely known [111], [112] and [113], there have been limited studies on long-term impacts [114]. Estimated recovery rates depend on the life history of a particular organism, and range from one to five times their generation time [115].