Deep-sea fishing in the Azores region is largely undertaken by
small-scale fishermen using deep longlines.
Trolling is banned in the region. This is might be a reason why
we are actually seeing such a diversity in some of these
areas. There's this term that we've been using a lot in the
scientific community which are "vulnerable marine ecosystems"
and these are typically ecosystems that are formed by
both sponges and corals. These ecosystems are very important
because they provide a number of goods and services to the
deep-sea environment as a whole and ultimately to us humans and
so some of these 3D structures provide both habitat, nursing
and rearing areas for a number of other species both crustaceans
and even commercial fish species and so these are very
important in terms of the overall ecosystem function in
the deep sea.
A lot of these species especially corals and sponges
are thought to be very slow growing and long living which
really makes them particularly vulnerable to human impacts.
Specially to bottom fisheries of course.