Data underlying the publication: Mitigating ecosystem impacts of bottom trawl fisheries for North Sea sole Solea solea by replacing mechanical with electrical stimulation

The csv data file “SAR_TBB.csv” contains data on habitat characteristics and fishing effort of the Dutch beam trawl fleet by grid cells of 1 minute longitude * 1 minute latitude in the North Sea used to study the changes in trawling impact on the benthic ecosystem due to the transition from conventional beam trawling to pulse trawling. Habitat variables include %sand, %gravel, %mud, bed shear stress (N.m-2) and level 3 EUNIS habitat type. Fishing effort, expressed as the annual swept area ratio (area swept by the gear in km2 / surface area of the grid cell (km2)), is given for the total Dutch beam trawl fleet and for a subset of vessels holding a pulse license (PLH) when fishing with the conventional beam trawl gear (PLH.T.year) or with the innovative pulse trawl (PLH.P.year).