Challenges and opportunities for strengthening bottom-tow fisheries sustainability

Bottom‐tow gear fisheries (trawls and dredges) produce ~24 million mt of harvest annually, representing a globally important animal‐sourced food system. While many are currently sustainably managed, growing concern over the potential for ecosystem impacts from bottom‐tow gears has increased pressure to improve these fisheries. We assembled an international working group of > 30 contributors, including fishing industry participants, managers, non‐governmental ocean conservation organization representatives, and scientists to synthesize obstacles to bottom‐tow fisheries sustainability and to develop expert‐based recommendations to operationalize sustainability advancements moving forward. We identified 30 key gaps impeding bottom‐towed fisheries sustainability spanning 6 core challenge areas including: seafloor disturbance, bycatch and discards, management design and implementation, fishing operations, cross‐sector conflicts, and public perception and communication. We generated 28 priority recommendations to address bottom‐tow fisheries sustainability obstacles with themes including: addressing data gaps, advancing mechanistic understanding and modelling tools, strengthening management processes, and improving knowledge sharing and communication. Cross‐disciplinary and diverse system experience among fisheries and marine ecosystem stakeholders will be critical for operationalizing bottom‐tow fisheries sustainability advancements. As the global human population approaches 10 bn in the next 30 years, ensuring sustainable wild capture fisheries is an imperative for feeding the world. Outputs from this synthesis serve as a resource for fishing and marine ecosystem stakeholders to identify key challenge areas and associated entry points for solutions‐oriented efforts to improve the sustainability of bottom‐tow fisheries.