Yes. Different fishing gears expose animals to different welfare risks, but handling practices, catch volume, and crew decisions often have just as much influence as the gear itself.
No fishing gear is inherently "good" or "bad" for animal welfare. Even vessels using the same gear can have very different welfare outcomes depending on the species caught, technologies employed, crew training, and operational practices. For example, a trawler using short tow times, lower catch volumes, and careful handling may have substantially different welfare outcomes from one operating with long tow times and poor handling practices.
That said, there are some common risks that exist in each type of fishing gear that we should be aware of. The table below summarizes the most common welfare risks associated with major fishing gears, along with examples of practices that can help reduce harm. The most effective solutions still need to be tailored to individual fisheries rather than applied universally.
Trawls: Fish may be chased to exhaustion, crowded, injured against the net, or crushed in the cod end. Risks can be reduced through shorter tows, lower catch volumes, selective net designs, underwater cameras, escape panels, and careful retrieval. Bycatch risk is also high in mixed-species trawl fisheries, and solutions tend to need to be tailored to specific vessels and fisheries rather than applied as a blanket fix.
Purse seines: These can be selective as they target the same school of fish, but crowding can become severe during the final part when the net tightens. Animals may also be injured during pumping or brailing to bring the catch onboard.
Gillnets: These are passive gears that are left in the water to entangle animals. They can remain entangled for long periods and cause animals to experience injury, fear, exhaustion, and predation. Bycatch can be a serious issue with gillnets.
Longlines: A longline can carry hundreds or thousands of hooks along a single line, which may be left in the water for hours. Animals may remain hooked for the entire time, struggling to escape. Bycatch is a big problem, especially for seabirds, sharks, turtles and marine mammals.
Pots and traps: Animals may be confined for long periods for the gear is retrieved and experience crowding or predation during that time. Ropes and lines used to deploy pots and traps also pose a risk of entanglement for marine mammals. If they are lost, it could continue to catch and kill animals long after fishing has ended.
Hook and line: These fisheries typically catch animals one at a time. They tend to have lower bycatch rates and no crowding injuries, so the welfare outcome depends heavily on what happens after the fish has been caught, such as how long the fish is held before killing, how much air exposure it experiences, and what killing method is used onboard.