The footprint of bottom trawling was estimated from Vessel monitoring by satellite (VMS) data, linked to the corresponding logbook information (German fleet) or the European fleet register (international fleet), respectively. It is quantified as annual swept area ratio, which is the ratio between the cumulative area touched by trawls and the size of the respective grid cell (0.05°*0.05°). Thus, a swept area ratio of 1 means that an area equivalent to the size of the grid cell was fished over one year. We considered the gear-specific footprints of four major gear groups: otter trawls, demersal seines, beam trawls and dredges. Further the swept area ratio is averaged over a period from 2012-2016 and thus represents the overall picture of fishing pressure to the seafloor in those years.The second map illustrates the coefficient of variation of annual swept area ratios from 2012-2016. It thus corresponds to the map “Footprint of bottom trawling in the German EEZ of the North Sea (2012-2016)” and represents the interannual variation in fishing pressure by bottom trawling.