Bottom trawling disrupts entire marine ecosystems, causing mortality in millions of non-target animals annually and destroying the complex habitat structures that support the welfare of seabed-dwelling species.
Trawling causes welfare impacts at extraordinary scale because each tow affects thousands of individual animals, most of which receive no consideration in fisheries management. Fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods caught as bycatch experience capture stress, crushing in nets, and prolonged exposure to air before death. Seabed invertebrates are physically crushed or displaced. Beyond immediate mortality, the destruction of structural habitat removes the environmental complexity that supports the welfare and behaviour of countless species over the long term. Marine welfare science increasingly argues that seabed protection is a welfare issue, not only a conservation one.