Fishing effort (number of dredge tows) by year (1990–2014)

Seabed trawling is the practice of towing fishing nets near or along the ocean floor. The towing process can physically damage seabed (benthic) habitats and species. It can also stir up sediment from the seabed. This creates sediment plumes that change light conditions. This can affect marine species (for example by limiting their capacity to generate energy through photosynthesis) and smother sensitive species.
This dataset relates to the "Commercial seabed trawling and dredging" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.