The use of bottom contact fishing gear (hereafter referred to as “trawling”) is one of the most contentious issues in marine fisheries management.
Photo: Allan Hicks

The controversy comes from the fact that although there is substantial evidence that trawling can dramatically transform sensitive ecosystems to the detriment of the flora and fauna, 25% of the world’s fish catch come from these fisheries. Consequently, understanding the nuanced impacts of different types of bottom contact gear in different types of ecosystems is critically important for maximizing catch while conserving habitats, fish populations and ecosystem services.

The Trawling Best Practices (TBP) project was created to address this knowledge gap by synthesizing the existing scientific knowledge with the goal of generating a range of best practices for the management of trawl fisheries.  

The TBP project was proposed in 2012. At that time, the most recent synthesis of scientific knowledge about trawling impacts was 10 years old and since then many more studies had been conducted, including studies focused on mapping of seafloor habitats and trawl effort distributions. In addition to the advances in scientific knowledge, there was increasing interest from a wide range of stakeholders on the impacts of trawling. Discussions with NGOs and industry almost always included the subject of trawl impacts as a major issue. Assembling the scientific information in a single data base accessible to all was of interest to all concerned.