Introduction

Trawling has been recognised as a profoundly damaging practice with lasting negative consequences on seabed ecology and marine life since its first mention in a 1376 parliamentary petition. Mobile fishing gear (including any dredge, trawl, or similar device) is used to tow or push a net with a boat to catch fish. Bottom trawling, in particular, grew from a need to keep up with declining fish stocks and developed further with technological changes and increased demands, though it created ‘anger and resentment’ within the fishing communities (Bolster, 2012, p. 236). All three trawling revolutions—invention, mechanisation, and later deep-water expansion—have been met with controversy and pushback by the public and environmentalists alike (Roberts, 2008).