was examined and their potential to disturb different benthic communities calculated. Fishing
effort data, expressed as the number of days fished, was collated for all fleets operating in
the Irish Sea in 1994. For each gear, the percentage of the seabed swept by those parts of
the gear that penetrate the seabed was calculated. 2. For all gears, the majority of fishing
effort was concentrated in the northern Irish Sea. Effort was concentrated in three main …