There’s no need to hit the ground hard any more. That’s the message from trawl manufacturers and fishing companies that have invested time and resources in getting gear to skim the seabed rather than dig into it.
Of course it doesn’t apply to every fishery. Some species, notably flatfish, need to be encouraged to flip out of the sand and into the gear, but for roundfish species such as cod and haddock, the old-fashioned methods are past their sell-by date and there are gentler ways of doing this.
It’s
