EcoEEco
Apr 26

Fishing Trawler Usefulness

I'm wondering if the developers are planning to take another pass at the fishing trawlers. Currently (and seemingly since they were introduced based on previous posts and discussions) they are effectively useless. They are costly to produce, consume fuel, and seem to catch fish at significantly slower rate than even just using a fishing rod. When compared to using traps, the trawler is a complete waste of resources. I'd love to see some changes made to this ship so it can find a purpose to exist and so it's possible to catch something other than freshwater fish at scale.
CompletedCompleted
changed status toCompleted·Aug 12, 2026
Aug 12, 2026

The Fishing Trawler has been significantly buffed in Update 14, as such this suggestion is considered implemented.

Jun 5, 2026

I totally agree. I have seen players quit a server, and probably all of Eco, after spending so much effort saving up for a fishing boat, only to find out that it is completely worthless. I am not even entirely sure what needs to be changed mechanically to fix it, but it certainly needs an overhaul. At an absolute minimum, it should be able to catch blue sharks so fishermen can actually supply the ingredients for shark fin soup. Maybe along those lines, the solution is adding more high-quality seafood recipes to the cooking professions that specifically require fish caught by the trawler but that can't be caught in fish traps.