Associations of commercial fisheries and cold-water corals and sponges

The growing threats to deep-sea ecosystems (e.g., offshore wind, seabed mining, aquaculture) have the potential to damage these understudied systems and to impact the fisheries that they support. However, to date, there has not been a uniform assessment identifying which commercially landed species are associated with the cold-water corals and other structure-forming invertebrates (SFI) found in the deep-sea. We conducted a meta-analysis to identify the species of fish and invertebrates landed by commercial fisheries in California, USA (2011-2024), and evaluate their potential associations with SFI. Captured species are assigned to Landing Categories, which range in specificity from individual species to broad taxonomic groups. We developed a referenced list of observations documenting associations, and use three metrics to identify which of the 313 Landing Categories are (or are not) associated with SFI: (1) Adjacent: species observed within one body length of SFI (target fish) or touc..., Study Site
California’s ocean is characterized by two Marine Ecoregions: a temperate, upwelling driven system north of Point Conception (i.e., Montereyan Pacific Transition) and a subtropical, current driven system south of Point Conception (i.e., Southern Californian Pacific) (Wilkinson et al., 2009). A transitional zone is located at the Point Conception geographic break which centers around the northern Channel Islands and Santa Barbara Channel. However, the range of the warm-water species can extend northward, facilitated by warming effects of El Niños, marine heat waves, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (Micheli et al., 2020). Due to the confluence of these distinct marine regions, California’s marine environment is characterized by high biodiversity relative to other Western states. The deep sea in California encompasses most state and Federal waters, including seamounts, submarine canyons, and relatively featureless plains of soft sediment. Such deep-sea areas are targeted by ..., # Data from: Associations of commercial fisheries and cold-water corals and sponges

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.34tmpg4wc](10.5061/dryad.34tmpg4wc)

## Description of the data and file structure

Review of published and grey literature to determine which species of commercially landed marine life are or are not associated with cold water corals and other structure-forming invertebrates for California's commercial fisheries (2010-2024).

### Files and variables

#### File: selgrath_data_species_group3.csv

**Description:** table assigning commercially landed fisheries species (Species ID) from California (2010-2024) to species groups

* SpeciesGroup = type of species
* species_group2= fish, invertebrate, or algae

##### Variables

* SpeciesName: species name
* species_id: species ID
* SpeciesGroup: *type of species*
* species_group2: fish, invertebrate, or algae

#### File: selgrath_dsc_val_associations_freshwater2.csv

**Description:** Binary table identifying commercially landed fishe...,