It shows high environmental heterogeneity, due to the occurrence of rocky beds, and detrital sediments as sandy shores and gravel beds. Sediments are mainly composed by sand and gravel, with high carbonate content [33]. The area is affected by strong northerly winds and offshore currents [34; 35]. The Menorca Channel presents a wide distribution of species and habitats of conservation interest, such as coralligenous platforms, rhodoliths beds, and biogenic detritic bottoms [36; 37]. Due to this, in 2014 it was designated a Site of Community Importance (SCI) within the Natura 2000 network, covering an area around 1674 km\({}^{2}\) and, consequently, it has to be declared a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). This protection regime seeks to ensure long-term preservation of the area as well as its flora and fauna, as well as the sustainability of human activities carried out therein, through the implementation of management plans. In 2016, two Fishing Protected Zones (FPZ) were also declared in a smaller area of the Menorca Channel, where the trawl fleet was excluded; this was as a result of the implementation of the Council Regulation (EC) N\({}^{\circ}\) 1967/2006, concerning management measures for the sustainable exploitation of fishery resources in the Mediterranean Sea, which considers the rhodoliths and coralligenous beds as protected habitats and prohibits the bottom trawling and other benthic fishing gears over these bottoms. Scientific information about the impact of fishing activities on rhodoliths and coral-ligenous beds is needed in the area to develop the management plan required for the designation of the Menorca Channel as an SAC. So far, the only information about these activities in the Menorca Channel are the study developed by [PERSON] et al. [38] within the framework of the LIFE+ INDEMARES project ([[https://www.indemares.es/en](https://www.indemares.es/en)]([https://www.indemares.es/en](https://www.indemares.es/en)); accessed on 31 October 2021), with inconclusive results in relation to the effect of bottom trawling on rhodoliths beds, and the results of the ECOSAFIMED project ([[https://ecosafimed.eu/](https://ecosafimed.eu/)]([https://ecosafimed.eu/](https://ecosafimed.eu/)); ac  
Figure 1: Map of the Menorca Channel (Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean) showing the Site of Community Importance (SCI; in lilac) and the trawl Fishing Protected Zones (in blue), declared in 2014 and 2016, respectively. The signals from the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) during the periods: (a) 2014–2015 and (b) 2017–2018 are represented. The four areas with different levels of bottom trawl fishing effort (Non-Impacted: green; Low effort history: yellow; Medium effort history: orange; High effort: red) compared in the present study are also shown. cessed on 31 October 2021) suggesting reductions in percentages of biogenic substrates and richness of megabenthic species due to the effects of impacts of artisanal fishery (trammel nets) on corolligenous beds. The current study was developed within the framework of the LIFE IP INTEMARES project ([[https://intemares.es/en](https://intemares.es/en)]([https://intemares.es/en](https://intemares.es/en)); accessed on 31 October 2021) and aims to assess the effects of bottom trawling on the rhodoliths beds of the SCI Menorca Channel. To do so, we compare the diversity, composition, and density of the epibenthic flora and fauna, together with the rhodoliths coverage and the morphology of the main species of rhodoliths of the four areas subjected to different levels of bottom trawl fishing effort, including one that has never been impacted by trawling.