Shrimp trawling and other commercial fishing are also important.
Across most of these areas, trawling and dredging continue unhindered.
The two methods currently in ruthless commercial use are mid-water trawling and purse seining.
Sometimes fisheries are classified according to the method of fishing employed: harpooning, seining, trawling, and lining.
"Bottom trawling and dredging cause profound harm to many sea floor ecosystems," Mr. Norse said.
All this drilling and digging and trawling and dumping and poisoning – what is it for, anyway?
Marine protection needs fisheries quotas, bans on bottom trawling and conservations zones for marine protection, for example.
"Alaska has zoned areas specifically for trawling, and the commission will probably make recommendations using that model," she said.
These vulnerable habitats are already damaged from activities such as bottom trawling and they are at high risk of further damage and deterioration.
"With prawn trawling and scallop dredging you have two methods that can literally empty the sea of fish and leave the seabed empty and barren," he told me.
Follow Hull's rich association with the sea – its docklands and the evolution of trawling – and inspect ornately carved whalebones and fearsome harpoons.
