Examining the human-predator interface of the North Sea: interactions between man-made subsea structures, marine predators, and commercial fisheries.

北海已经进入了一个快速变化的时期，包括大规模的油气基础设施退役；海洋可再生能源产业的增长；改变商业渔业管理；以及持续的气候变化。北海也是包括海鸟、海豹和鲸类在内的全球重要海洋食肉动物种群的家园。捕食者和渔民与人造结构（MMS）以及彼此之间有着复杂的关系。例如，在MMS建设和运营期间，哺乳动物可能会被转移，但一旦安装，MMS就可以容纳人工珊瑚礁，局部鱼类密度增加，从而吸引个体捕食者在MMS觅食（例如Russell等人，2014[1]）。MMS也可以作为事实上的海洋保护区，因为许多海洋保护区不包括商业渔业和航运。一些渔民优先在管道附近作业（Rouse et al. 2018[2]），可能是由于鱼类密度增加，但一般来说，渔民都主张拆除退役的结构。海洋捕食者与渔民之间的相互作用可以是直接的，例如跟随渔民去拾取丢弃物（Bodey et al. 2014[3]），也可以是间接的，例如争夺猎物资源[5]。最后，掠食性物种通过多种机制相互竞争、捕食和促进。了解上述关系对于协调生物多样性保护与未来资源管理至关重要。本项目将通过解决四个关键问题（章节）来填补关键的知识空白：1)MMS对渔船活动的影响程度和空间尺度是什么？2) MMS和渔船对上层捕食者活动的相对影响是什么？3)北海的哪些区域是捕食者的热点？4)北海顶级捕食者的分布、商业渔业与当前和未来MMS景观之间的空间重叠是什么？

The North Sea has entered a period of rapid change incorporating large-scale decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure; increases in the marine renewable energy industry; changes to commercial fisheries management; and ongoing climate change. The North Sea is also home to globally significant populations of marine predators including seabirds, seals and cetaceans. Predators and fishers have a complex relationship with man-made structures (MMS) and with each other. For example, mammals can be displaced during MMS construction and operation, but once installed, MMS can host artificial reefs with localised increases in fish densities, resulting in attraction of individual predators to forage at MMS (e.g. Russell et al. 2014 [1]). MMS can also act as de facto MPAs because many exclude commercial fisheries and shipping. Some fishers preferentially operate near pipelines (Rouse et al. 2018 [2]), likely due to increased fish densities, but in general fishers are advocates for the removal of decommissioned structures. Marine predator interactions with fishers can be direct e.g. following fishers to scavenge on discards (Bodey et al. 2014 [3]) and predator by-catch [4] or indirect e.g. competition for prey resources [5]. Finally, predatory species compete, predate, and facilitate each other via multiple mechanisms. Understanding the above relationships is critical to harmonising conservation of biodiversity with future resource management. This project will fill critical knowledge gaps by addressing four key questions (chapters): 1) What is the magnitude and spatial scale of the effect of MMS on fishing vessel activity? 2) What are the relative influences of MMS and fishing vessels on the movements of top predators? 3) What areas of the North Sea are hotspots for predators? 4) What is the spatial overlap between the North Sea distributions of top predators, commercial fisheries, and the current and future MMS landscape?