Different bottom trawl fisheries have a differential impact on the status of the North Sea seafloor habitats

Trawling is highly aggregated in core fishing grounds where the status of the seafloor is low but the catch per unit of effort (CPUE) per unit of impact is high. In the North Sea, muddy habitats are impacted the most and coarse habitats are impacted the least. Beam trawling for brown shrimps, otter trawling for industrial fish, and dredging for molluscs have the lowest impact.