Trawl Marks and Dredge Spoils as Examples of Seabed Anthropic Alteration on Sediments (Menorca Shelf)

Abstract

Trawl marks and dredge spoils are two different types of anthropic seabed alterations. Both of them are footprints of the human activity on the seabed and both of them are traceable on the swath bathymetry records from certain types of seabed. High frequency multibeam echosounders allow detecting and quantifying the extent of these features so identifying their acoustic signature is a valuable issue in the field of impact assessment and environmental management. In addition, patterning and distinguishing them is something that geomorphologists need to bear in mind when interpreting geophysical records in a human influenced area in order to avoid misinterpretation of the real natural features.