Abstract

Commercial fisheries all across the world use a technique called bottom trawling, in which a big, heavy net is dragged down the ocean floor and is used to catch anything that gets in its way. Previous studies have connected trawling to serious environmental effects, including the killing of shallow seabeds and the harvest of numerous nontarget species, known as “bycatch.” This strategy is now being found to have long-term, far-reaching effects in the deeper ocean and beyond, according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.