Notwithstanding species-specific differences in catches andtheir possible mechanisms, both the 6-mm and soft-brush groundgears intuitively would have less benthic impact—especially oninfauna and flora. In particular, by being vertically suspended, thechains of the soft-brush would easily slide over sedentary orga-nisms. Such a fishing mechanism was hypothesized to cause theminimal damage to red king crabs observed by Rose (1999).Within the conventional ground gears, the 8-mm chain appearsthe best option and indeed is preferred by local fishers, althoughsome use a 10-/8-mm combination. It might be possible to aug-ment capture by rigging a tickler chain (e.g. 2–4 mm chain) andthen a light 4–6-mm ground chain. Doing so might still have fewerimpacts and less drag than a single 8- or 10-mm chain. The key tosuch a configuration operating effectively relies on a sufficientlyweighted (semi-pelagic) foot rope at an optimal distance off thesubstratum. Compared to the 10-mm chain, simply choosing 6- or8-mm would reduce drag by up to 7% for the assessed beam trawl.The differences for an otter trawl would be less noticeable owingto the contribution of drag by the otter boards, but would still rep-resent ∼5% drag reduction for the 6-mm ground chain in an ottertrawl system that had 20% more drag than the beam-trawl system.Obviously, the ultimate utility of any such configurations wouldneed to be validated using conventional trawls and across the fullrange of conditions (including different substrate types, depths andweather).As fuel prices and concerns over habitat damage (and/or escapemortality under foot ropes) increase, it will become more impor-tant to assess the impacts and operational characteristics of groundgears used with penaeid trawls. This has previously (largely) beenavoided due to the complexity and technical challenges asso-ciated with the required experiments. Nevertheless, quantifyingthe mechanics and importance of ground gears in terms of theengineering and catching efficiencies of penaeid-trawl systems(possibly following similar methodologies as that presented here)will help to progress environmentally sound configurations