You searched for: “crawl
crawl, crawl, trawl
crawl (KRAHL) (verb)
To move in a slow manner, as in traffic or by moving on one's hands and knees: The traffic was so slow that we all joked that we could crawl faster on our hands and knees.
crawl (KRAHL) (noun)
1. A stroke used when anyone moves in water that involves alternate overhand movements of the arms and accompanied by kicking of the legs: Joey won several prizes for his prowess in the crawl during the swimming meet.
2. In the fishing industry, a confined space in shallow water for such crops as lobster: The angling community protected the trout in the crawl from illegal fishers.
trawl (TRAHL) (noun)
A method of fishing using a large cone shaped net which is dragged through the water, catching whatever is in the area: There are many organizations that oppose the use of the trawl net because of the destruction of endangered species.

From the shore, people were watching the boat trawl for fish and it seemed to crawl at a slow pace probably because it was passing through a crawl for lobsters before moving into the open sea.