A Review of the Data Available for Defining the Bottom Contact Fisheries Footprint on the Seamounts of the Northwestern Hawaiian Ridge and Emperor Chain

A long-standing data gap for NPFC management of seamounts of the northwestern Hawaiian Ridge and Emperor Seamount Chain (ES-NHR) is the footprint of fisheries activities on these seamounts.  We review the available data to begin to map this footprint.  Using satellite AIS data and the algorithms of the publicly available Global Fishing Watch database, a spatial map of trawling in a 0.01-degree latitude by 0.01-degree longitude square grid was created.  From 2012-2016 trawling effort for all countries focused on North Koko, Koko, Yuryaku, Kammu, and Colahan Seamounts from the summits to as deep as 1500 m.  Emperor Seamount locations north of N Koko show little to no trawling in those years. 
An additional source of data comes from NSF-funded AUV surveys in 2014-2015, in which scars from bottom contact gear are readily visible.  These surveys cover a much smaller spatial area and depth range than the satellite data, but indicate the full trawling footprint is not encompassed by the satellite data, suggesting the fishing footprint has shifted through time.
Habitat suitability modeling data for octocorals and antipatharians from published studies show that most areas within fishable depths on these seamounts have very high habitat suitability (>60%) for deep-sea corals.  Overlaying the combined fishing footprint from the above two datasets onto the habitat suitability results shows considerable overlap among the most suitable areas for corals and the highest fishing effort. Scientific studies of other seamounts in the NWHI as well as AUV images of VME taxa on the ES-NHR seamounts support the widespread occurrence of deep-sea corals on these features in this depth range.  These results imply a high probability of SAIs on deep-sea coral VMEs from trawl fishing on all currently fished ES-NHR seamounts across the full fishing depth range.