User:ZachRumley/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Bottom trawling.

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I decided to work on the bottom trawling wikipedia page because early in the semester we talked about the tools and technologies researchers use in the deep sea. In the deep-sea, there are many different approaches and techniques with bottom drawling often limited to the different depths in which researchers trawl. Bottom trawling matters because it is an efficient approach to collecting organisms that are found in unobservable areas. My preliminary impression of bottom drawling was that this technique would have more negative impacts than positive impacts due to the injuries and deaths sustained by smaller organisms due to the net.

Evaluate the article
Review by Zach

I enjoyed reading this Wikipedia page, but there is information that is not found on the page. Therefore, I have provided my possible changes and additions to this page.

The lead section for this page has a clear and concise introductory sentence that helps clarify the definition of bottom trawling.


 * The lead only includes information later rediscussed or broken down into later sections. This Wikipedia page's lead section of this Wikipedia page has much information and can be simplified into a more concise lead.
 * The article needs to provide a brief overview of the various significant sections presented on the page.

The article presents relevant topics discussing the history of bottom trawling, the different gear used in bottom trawling, how bottom trawling works, and the positive and negative effects of this practice.


 * Reviewing the recently added references to this page, the most recent reference came from 2021, showing that most of this page is up to date.
 * The page discusses the attempts of organizations to regulate and ban this practice. However, the discussions are from over fifteen years ago.
 * I would like to see an up-to-date analysis of recent attempts to regulate this practice.
 * This article needs to provide insight into how this practice affects marginalized communities. However, near the end of the page, the author describes the attempts of Asian countries to create coalitions against the use of these practices.
 * The subsection "Current restrictions" is essential to update you because this is one of the significant components of this page.

This topic is challenging for a writer to remain neutral due to the mere impacts of this practice. Unfortunately, the page generally states more negative outcomes of this practice.


 * The article discussed countries' different viewpoints on bottom trawling and provided this history and attitudes towards this practice.
 * Illustrated the adverse effects such as population collapses in various fish species.
 * Provided the many different forms of bottom trawling and how new technology can limit the consequences of this practice.

Some sections need citations


 * In the subsection titled "Resuspension and biogeochemistry".
 * All references and sources have working links to academically renowned articles/experiments.

I suggest changing the order of the subsections. For example, the page might flow better if the restrictions section had been placed before the environmental damage section.

This page was written well and had no or few grammatical errors.

One possible addition to the page could be a section illustrating the change in biodiversity of the ocean floors.


 * This would provide a clear message about the nature of this practice while remaining neutral.

Each section has clear and properly labeled figures helping the reader visualize the information.


 * All figures on the page adhere to Wikipedia's copyright restrictions.

Last updates on this page were made in 2021. The talk section of this page has a view comments regarding adding specific facts such as locations and important individuals.


 * The page has around 1.7 edits per year.
 * The page-views for this topic is around 17 per 60 days.
 * Article is apart of the following WikiProjects:
 * WikiProject Fisheries and Fishing
 * WikiProject Climate change
 * WikiProject Environment

Overall, I think the article's overall status is okay, however I feel that there is missing information especially since there are such scarce edits throughout the last few years. The article's strengths are providing insight into how this practice came about and how attitudes towards this practice has changed through the last 200 years. I suggest a few sections be added to improve this page while keeping it short and concise.