Physical impact of beam trawling revisited: sediment resuspension and disturbance of tickler chain and pulse beam trawling Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Beam trawling causes physical disruption to the seafloor through physical contact of the gear components on the sediment and the resuspension of sediment into the water column in the turbulent wake of the gear. Recently Dutch beam trawlers have replaced tickler chains by electrodes as alternative stimulation for catching flatfish. It is claimed that benthic impacts are reduced. Here we report on trials in a medium sand fishing ground to compare ...