Bottom trawling destroys benthic invertebrate communities on a massive scale, causing welfare harm to billions of crustaceans, echinoderms, and molluscs while devastating the ecosystems fish depend on.
The welfare implications of bottom trawling extend beyond target fish to encompass billions of benthic invertebrates that are crushed, exposed to air, or discarded with injuries as bycatch. While the sentience of many invertebrate groups remains scientifically uncertain, crustaceans and potentially echinoderms may have capacities for nociception that make the scale of their incidental mortality a welfare concern. The ecological welfare of marine communities - the living reef structures, seagrass beds, and rocky reefs that support entire food webs - is destroyed by trawling at rates that prevent recovery.