Broad benthic habitats in Bulgarian Black Sea from physical disturbance assessments < 200 m depth for the period 2013-2017

The map provides broad benthic habitats in the Bulgarian Black Sea taken from an assessment of the physical disturbance on the seabed by mobile bottom-contacting gears and links the pressure intensity to benthic habitats status in the in the Bulgarian Black Sea shelf in 2013-2017.Vessel Monitoring System dataprovided by Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture were analysed to reconstruct the trawling lines from fishing gear towed on/near the bottom. The physical disturbance intensity was estimated using the swept area ratio (SAR) calculated from reconstructed trawling lines, in grids with cell sizes 0.5x0.5 km. Based on "good" and "not good" status of seabed biota, mean SAR was categorised in two corresponding classes of "low" and "high" pressure intensity as the low/high pressure threshold at mean SAR >0.2. EUSeaMap 2021 (Vasquez et al, 2021) was used to evaluate the extent and proportion of MSFD benthic broad habitat types under physical disturbance from fisheries.The results wre included in Second MSFD assessment Report of Bulgaria