Trawl fishing catches huge amounts of seafood. It also devastates the seafloor

Trawl fishing is prized for efficiency: behind a boat, a wide net can drag for hours along the seabed, herding fish toward the narrow bag at the stern. A single tow can haul tens of thousands of pounds of seafood, helping trawling become central to some of the world’s biggest commercial fisheries. But the same gear that enables large catches can also take in unwanted marine species and damage seabed ecosystems. The article notes that bottom trawling represents the most extensive direct human physical disturbance to seabed habitats worldwide.