Figure 11.4: Area trawled (cumulative) by class in the Demersal Fish Community Classification, 1990–2005

Text description of figure

Figure 11.4 shows the 16 classes in the Demersal Fish Community Classification. Each class represents a different demersal fish community and is shown by a different colour in Figure 11.4. Two shades of the same colour are assigned to each class; the lighter shade shows the demersal fish community area not trawled and the darker shade shows the area of each community that has been trawled between 1990 and 2005.

The Demersal Fish Community Classifications are:

1. Northern coastal
2. Southern coastal
3. Northern shelf
4. Central shelf
5. Southern shelf
6. Challenger Plateau 1
7. Chatham Rise 1
8. Chatham Rise 2
9. Campbell Plateau 1
10. Campbell Plateau 2
11. Chatham Rise 3
12. Challenger Plateau 2
13. Campbell Plateau 3
14. Northern midslope
15. Southern midslope
16. Deep midslope.

The figure shows that several demersal fish communities have experienced trawling at a significant proportion of their area while others have not. Most of the communities are shown to have experienced some level of trawl activity. The communities most affected by trawl activity are shown to be (from North to South) the northern coastal, northern shelf, central shelf, Chatham Rise 3 and Campbell Plateau 3. Those least affected are the southern and deep midslope communities.