Bottom Trawling Seafloor Welfare

Bottom trawling disturbs vast areas of seabed, harming the marine invertebrates and fish that live there. The welfare implications of this dominant fishing method extend to billions of individual animals annually.

Key Facts

Bottom trawling is the most widely used fishing method globally, responsible for over 25% of wild-caught seafood by weight
The benthic communities — seafloor invertebrates including worms, molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — are mechanically disrupted and killed by trawl gear passage
An estimated 25-40% of all trawl catch is discarded as bycatch; many discarded species are returned to sea dead or dying after injury from capture and depressurisation
Marine protected areas where bottom trawling is prohibited show recovery of benthic biodiversity within years, demonstrating the direct impact of trawling on these communities
Scotland, the EU, and some other jurisdictions have begun restricting bottom trawling in protected areas, but coverage remains limited and enforcement varies

Welfare Considerations

Bottom trawling presents a scale of welfare harm that dwarfs almost any other human activity in terms of individual animals affected. The seafloor communities disrupted by trawl gear contain millions of sentient or potentially sentient animals per square kilometre — crustaceans with nociception, molluscs with varying degrees of neural complexity, and the fish and invertebrates killed as bycatch. The welfare case for restricting bottom trawling in ecologically sensitive areas is strong both on individual welfare grounds and on the basis of preserving the ecosystem welfare of marine communities. Consumer choices — selecting line-caught, pot-caught, and certified sustainable seafood over trawl-caught alternatives — reduce individual purchasing contribution to trawling demand and create market signals for lower-impact fishing methods.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council or equivalent bodies for sustainable, lower-impact fishing methods
Prefer line-caught, pot-caught, or diver-caught seafood over trawl-caught species where alternatives exist
Support campaigns for expanded marine protected areas with effective bottom trawling restrictions
Advocate for government fisheries policy that phases out bottom trawling in ecologically sensitive habitats
Reduce overall seafood consumption or shift to species with lower welfare impact and ecological footprint