Fishing effort (number of trawl tows) by year (1990–2014)
New Zealand's Environment Reporting Series: The Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand
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, creating sediment plumes that can smother sensitive species and change light conditions. This can affect marine species (eg by limiting their ability to generate energy through photosynthesis). This dataset relates to the "Commercial seabed trawling and dredging" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.