Destructive fishing practices with bottom-contact gear are a major ecological concern for temperate and cold-water coral habitats. They remove and break slow-growing, long-lived corals, reducing the structural complexity essential for marine biodiversity and impairing key ecosystem goods and services that support human well-being. Mitigating or removing the impacts of bottom fishing in coral-rich areas, enforcing sustainable fishing practices, and promoting active restoration of damaged sites are thus essential to safeguard these irreplaceable ecosystems.

This project aims to upscale the conservation and restoration of degraded coral habitats along the south and southwestern Portuguese coast by helping to halt biodiversity loss associated with bottom fishing. It will do so by developing innovative, large-scale coral bycatch mitigation strategies that directly engage fishing stakeholders. The approach is structured around two key pillars: (1) impact prevention, through the expanded use of modified fishing gear designed to significantly reduce the accidental capture of habitat-forming sessile invertebrates, particularly corals; and (2) active restoration, to accelerate habitat recovery through the development of a novel, low-cost method that enables fishers to reattach and redeploy corals at sea at scale.

This pioneer project is expected to significantly improve long-term sustainability of coral conservation and restoration as it establishes the foundations for continued action, replication, and integration into national and European management frameworks beyond its duration.