Effects of trawling activity on the bamboo-coral Isidella elongata and the sea pen Funiculina quadrangularis along the Gioia Canyon (Western Mediterranean, southern Tyrrhenian Sea)

The impacts of fishing activities on ecosystems represent an acknowledged environmental issue, especially considering the increasing demands for the conservation of biodiversity. Submarine canyons are complex environments that can harbor high biodiversity of benthic ecosystems and high biomass of fish species, thus representing preferential fishing areas for bottom trawling fleets. The effects of bottom trawling on the benthic epifauna were...