The capture and store a of carbon in coastal and marine ecosystem is referred to as blue
carbon storage. Conservation, maintenance and estimation of carbon storage in marine
ecosystem is a key issue for climate change scenarios. While conservation of blue carbon
ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses, have been accorded
worldwide, little information about carbon release from marine ecosystem due to
human activity is available. While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC
considers world-wide estimation of carbon sequestration to the seafloor by the
biological pump, little is known on the carbon release from the seafloor by sediment
disturbing activities, such as bottom trawling. Due to its importance as nursery area,
Malaga Bay (Southern Spain) has been proposed by the FAO as an Essential Fish Habitat
(GFCM, 2019) suggesting reduction of fishing pressure. Apart of the protection of
important nursery area, the reduction of bottom trawling reduces carbon release from
the seafloor by sediment disturbance. This reduction of CO2 emission could be
considered in the blue carbon market. For this reason, we show a first estimate of CO2
release of bottom trawler >15m in Malaga, and discuss the results in the framework of
local Marine Spatial Planning approaches.
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