Fishing is the activity of
hunting for
fish. By extension, the term fishing is also applied to
hunting for other aquatic animals such as various types of
shellfish as well as squid, octopus, turtles, frogs and some
edible marine invertebrates. The term fishing is not usually
applied to the hunting of aquatic mammals such as whales.
Fishing is an ancient and worldwide practice with various
techniques and traditions and it has been transformed by
modern technological developments. It has even became a
sport of some account.
Fishermen in the harbor of Kochi, India.
New England fishermen with a pile of white hake c. 1936
Fishing in antiquity
Stone Age
fishing hook made from bone.
Origins
"Fishing" is a very ancient practice that dates back at
least to the
Mesolithic period which began about 10,000 years ago.[1]
Archaeological features such as shell middens,[2] discarded
fish bones and cave paintings show that sea foods were
important for survival and consumed in significant
quantities. During this period, most people lived a
hunter-gather lifestyle and were, of necessity, constantly
on the move. However, where there are early examples of
permanent settlements (though not necessarily permanently
occupied) such as those at Lepenski Vir, they are almost always associated with
fishing as a major source of food.
The
Neolithic culture and technology spread worldwide
between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago. With the new technologies
of farming and pottery came basic forms of all the main
fishing methods that are still used today.
Fishing may even pre-date the development of modern
humans. The
aquatic ape hypothesis, a controversial proposal,
suggests that the ancestors of modern humans went through
one or more periods of time living in a semi-aquatic setting
and gathered most of their food from shallow coastal or
other waters before their descendants returned to a more
land-based existence.
Ancient representations
Egyptians bringing in fish, and splitting for
salting.
The ancient river Nile was full of fish; fresh and dried
fish were a staple food for much of the population.[3] The
Egyptians invented various implements and methods for
fishing and these are clearly illustrated in tomb scenes,
drawings, and papyrus documents. Simple reed boats served
for fishing. Woven nets, weir baskets made from willow
branches, harpoons and hook and line (the hooks having a
length of between eight millimetres and eighteen centimetres)
were all being used. By the 12th dynasty, metal hooks with
barbs were being used. As is fairly common today, the fish
were clubbed to death after capture. Nile perch,
catfish and
eels
were among the most important fish. Some representations
hint at fishing being pursued as a pastime.
Poseidon/Neptune sculpture in Copenhagen Port.
Fishing scenes are rarely represented in ancient Greek
culture, a reflection of the low social status of fishing.
There is a wine cup, dating from 510–500 BC, that shows a boy
crouched on a rock with a fishing-rod in his right hand and
a basket in his left. In the water below, a rounded object
of the same material with an opening on the top. This has
been identified as a fish-cage used for keeping live fish,
or as a fish-trap. It is clearly not a net. This object is
currently in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[4]
Pictorial evidence of Roman fishing comes from mosaics
which show fishing from boats with rod and line as well as
nets. Various species such as conger, lobster, sea urchin,
octopus and cuttlefish are illustrated.[5] In a parody of
fishing, a type of gladiator called retiarius was armed with
a trident and a casting-net. He would fight against the
murmillo, who carried a short sword and a helmet with
the image of a fish on the front.
The Greco-Roman sea god
Neptune is depicted as wielding a fishing trident.
Ancient literature
There are numerous references to fishing in ancient
literature; in most cases, however, the descriptions of nets
and fishing-gear do not go into detail, and the equipment is
described in general terms. An early example from the
Bible in
Job 41:7: Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons?
or his head with fish spears?.[6]
The Greek historian
Polybius (ca 203 BC-120 BC), in his Histories, describes hunting for swordfish by using a
harpoon with a barbed and detachable head.[7]
Oppian of Corycus, a Greek author wrote a major treatise
on sea fishing, the Halieulica or Halieutika,
composed between 177 and 180. This is the earliest such work
to have survived intact to the modern day. Oppian describes
various means of fishing including the use of nets cast from
boats, scoop nets held open by a hoop, spears and tridents,
and various traps "which work while their masters sleep".
Oppian’s description of fishing with a "motionless" net is
also very interesting:
- The fishers set up very light nets of buoyant
flax and wheel in a circle round about while they
violently strike the surface of the sea with their oars
and make a din with sweeping blow of poles. At the
flashing of the swift oars and the noise the fish bound
in terror and rush into the bosom of the net which
stands at rest, thinking it to be a shelter: foolish
fishes which, frightened by a noise, enter the gates of
doom. Then the fishers on either side hasten with the
ropes to draw the net ashore.
From ancient representations and literature it is clear
that fishing boats were typically small, lacking a mast or
sail, and were only used close to the shore.
In traditional Chinese history, history begins with three
semi-mystical and legendary individuals who taught the
Chinese the arts of civilization around 2800–2600 BC: of
these
Fu Hsi was reputed to be the inventor of writing,
hunting, trapping, and fishing.
Fishing techniques
Hand fishing
It is possible to fish with minimal equipment by using
only the hands. In the
USA catching
catfish in this way is known as noodling. In the British
Isles, the practice of catching trout by hand is known as
trout tickling; it is an art mentioned several times in the
plays of Shakespeare.
Trout binning is a method of fishing, possibly fictional,
performed with a sledgehammer.[8]
Divers can catch lobsters by hand.
Pearl diving is the practice of hunting for oysters by free-diving to depths of up to 30 m.
Hand-line fishing is a technique requiring a fishing
line with a weight and one or more lure-like hooks.
Catching fish by hand is currently illegal in the United
States in the state of
Kansas.
Spear and bow fishing
Head of an arrow used for fishing, from
Guyana.
Spear fishing is an ancient method of fishing and may be
conducted with an ordinary
spear or a specialised variant such as an eel spear[9][10]
or the trident. A small trident type spear with a long
handle is used in the American South and Midwest for
"gigging" bullfrogs with a bright light at night, or for gigging
carp and other fish in the shallows.
Traditional spear fishing is restricted to shallow
waters, but the development of the speargun has made the
method much more efficient. With practice, divers are able
to hold their breath for up to four minutes and sometimes
longer; of course, a diver with underwater breathing
equipment can dive for much longer
periods.
Bow fishers use a
bow and arrow to kill fish in shallow water from above.
Fishing nets
Fishing with a cast net.
Coracles on the
River Teifi,
Wales 1972.
A Moroccan fisherman mending his nets.
All
fishing nets are meshes usually formed by knotting a
relatively thin thread. Modern nets are usually made of
artificial polyamides like nylon, although nets of organic
polyamides such as wool or silk thread were common until recently and are still
used in certain areas.
A small hand net held open by a hoop and possibly on the
end of a long stiff handle has been known since antiquity
and may be used for sweeping up fish near the water surface.
Such a net used by an angler to aid in landing a captured
fish is known as a landing net. In England, hand netting is
the only legal way of catching eels and has been practised
for thousands of years on the River Parrett and River
Severn.
A casting net is circular with a weighted periphery.
Sizes vary up to about 4 m diameter. The net is thrown by
hand in such a manner that it spreads out on the water and
sinks. Fish are caught as the net is hauled back in.[11]
Coracle-fishing is performed by two men, each seated in
his coracle and with one hand holding the net while, with
the other, he plies his paddle. When a fish is caught, each
hauls up his end of the net until the two coracles are
brought to touch and the fish is then secured.
The Chinese fishing nets (Cheena vala) found at Kochi in India are an example of shore operated lift
nets.[12]
Huge mechanical contrivances hold out horizontal nets of 20
m or more across. The nets are dipped into the water and
raised again, but otherwise cannot be moved.
A
seine is a large fishing net that may be arranged in a
number of different ways. In purse seine fishing the net
hangs vertically in the water by attaching weights along the
bottom edge and floats along the top. A simple and commonly
used fishing technique is beach seining, where the seine net
is operated from the shore. Danish seine is a method which
has some similarities with trawling.
Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively
pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more
boats.
A
gillnet catches fish which try to pass through it by
snagging on the gill covers. Thus trapped, the fish can
neither advance through the net nor retreat.
Ghost nets are nets that have been lost at sea. They may
continue to be a menace to wildlife for many years.
Dredging
There are types of dredges used for collecting scallops
or oysters from the seabed. They tend to have the form of a
scoop made of chain mesh and they are towed by a fishing
boat. Scallop dredging is very destructive to the seabed,
and nowadays is often replaced by mariculture or by scuba
diving to collect the scallops.
Fishing lines
Fish are caught with a fishing line by encouraging a fish
to bite upon a fish hook or a gorge. A fishing hook will pierce the
mouthparts of a fish and may be barbed to make escape less
likely. A gorge is buried in the bait such that it would be
swallowed end first. The tightening of the line would fix it
cross-wise in the quarry's stomach or gullet and so the
capture would be assured.
Fishing with a hook and line is called
angling. In addition to the use of the hook and line
used to catch a fish, a heavy fish may be landed by using a
landing net or a hooked pole called a
gaff.
Trolling is a technique in which a fishing lure on a line is
drawn through the water. Trolling from a moving boat is a
technique of big-game fishing and is used when fishing from
boats to catch large open-water species such as tuna and
marlin. Trolling is also a freshwater angling technique most
often used to catch trout. Trolling is also an effective way to catch
northern pike in the great lakes. This technique allows
anglers to cover a large body of water in a short time.
Long-line fishing is a commercial fishing technique that
uses hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks hanging from
a single line.
Snagging is a technique where the object is to hook the
fish in the body. Generally, a large treble hook with a
heavy sinker is cast into a river containing a large amount
of fish, such as a Salmon, and is quickly jerked and reeled
in. Due to the often illegal nature of this method some
practitioners have added methods to disguise the practice,
such as adding bait or reducing the jerking motion.
Kite fishing
Kite fishing is presumed to have been first invented in
China. It was, and is, also used by the people of New Guinea
and other Pacific Islands - either by cultural diffusion from
China or independent invention.
Kites can provide the boatless fishermen access to waters
that would otherwise be available only to boats. Similarly,
for boat owners, kites provide a way to fish in areas where
it is not safe to navigate such as shallows or coral reefs
where fish may be plentiful. Kites can also be used for
trolling a lure through the water.
Suitable kites may be of very simple construction. Those
of
Tobi Island are a large leaf stiffened by the ribs of
the fronds of the coconut palm. The fishing line may be made
from coconut fibre and the lure made from spiders webs.[13]
Modern kitefishing is popular in
New Zealand, where large delta kites of synthetic
materials are used to fish from beaches[1][2],
taking a line and hooks far out past the breakers.
Ice fishing
Ice fishing is the practice of catching fish with lines and
hooks through an opening in the ice on a frozen body of
water. It is practised by hunter-gatherers such as the Inuit and by anglers in other cold or continental
climates.
Fish traps
Traps are culturally almost universal and seem to have
been independently invented many times. There are
essentially two types of trap, a permanent or semi-permanent
structure placed in a river or tidal area and pot-traps that
are baited to attract prey and periodically lifted.
Indigenous Australians were, prior to European colonisation,
most populous in Australia's better-watered areas such as
the Murray-Darling river system of the south-east. Here,
where water levels fluctuate seasonally, indigenous people
constructed ingenious stone fish traps.[14] Unfortunately,
most have been completely or partially destroyed. The
largest and best known were the Brewarrina fish traps on the
Barwon River at Brewarrina in New South Wales, which
fortunately are at least partly preserved.[15] The
Brewarinna fish traps caught huge numbers of migratory
native fish as the Barwon River rose in flood and then fell.
In southern Victoria, indigenous people created an elaborate
systems of canals, some more than 2 km long. The purpose of
these canals was the encouragement and catching of eels, a
fish of short coastal rivers (as opposed to rivers of the
Murray-Darling system). The eels were caught by a variety of
traps including stone walls constructed across canals with a
net placed across an opening in the wall. Traps at different
levels in the marsh came into operation as the water level
rose and fell. Somewhat similar stone wall traps were
constructed by native American Pit River people in
north-eastern California.[16]
Fishing method of Wagenya people in Congo.
Catching lobster.
A technique called
dam fishing is used by the Baka pygmies. This involves the construction of a
temporary dam resulting in a drop in the water levels
downstream — allowing fish to be easily collected.[17]
In medieval Europe, large fishing weir structures were
constructed from wood posts and wattle fences. 'V' shaped
structures in rivers could be as long as 60 m and worked by
directing fish towards fish traps or nets. Such fish traps
were evidently controversial in medieval England. The Magna
Carta includes a clause requiring that they be
removed:
- All fish-weirs shall be removed from the Thames,
the Medway, and throughout the whole of England, except
on the sea coast.[18]
Basket weir fish traps were widely used in ancient times.
They are shown in medieval illustrations and surviving
examples have been found. Basket weirs are about 2 m long
and comprise two wicker cones, one inside the other — easy
to get into and hard to get out.[19]
The
Wagenya people, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, build a huge system of
wooden tripods across the river. These tripods are anchored
on the holes naturally carved in the rock by the water
current. To these tripods are anchored large baskets, which
are lowered in the rapids to "sieve" the waters for fish. It
is a very selective fishing, as these baskets are quite big
and only large size fish are trapped. Twice a day the adults Wagenya people pull out these baskets to check whether there
are any fish caught; in which case somebody will dive into
the river to fetch it.
Lobster and crab pots
Pot traps are typically used to catch
crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters and crayfish. Pot traps
such as the lobster trap may be constructed in various
shapes, each is a mesh box designed with a convoluted
entrance that makes entry much easier than exit. The pots
are baited and lowered into the water and checked daily.
Similar traps are used in many areas to capture bait fish.
Trained animals
Chinese man with fishing cormorant.
In China and Japan, the practice of
cormorant fishing is thought to date back some 1300
years. Fishermen use the natural fish-hunting instincts of
the cormorants to catch fish, but a metal ring placed round
the bird's neck prevents large, valuable fish being
swallowed. The fish are instead collected by the fisherman.[20]
The people of
Nauru used trained frigatebirds to fish on reefs.
The practice of tethering a
remora, a sucking fish, to a fishing line and using the
remora to capture sea turtles probably originated in the
Indian Ocean. The earliest surviving records of the practice
are Peter Martyr d'Anghera's 1511 accounts of the second
voyage of Columbus to the New World (1494).[21]
However, these accounts are probably apocryphal, and based
on earlier, no longer extant accounts from the Indian Ocean
region.
Dating from the 1500s in Portugal,
Portuguese Water Dogs were used by fishermen to send
messages between boats, to retrieve fish and articles from
the water, and to guard the fishing boats. Labrador
Retrievers have been used by fishermen to
assist in bringing nets to shore; the dog would grab the
floating corks on the ends of the nets and pull them to
shore.
Toxins
Many
hunter gatherer cultures use poisonous plants to stun
fish so that they become easy to collect by hand. Some of
these poisons paralyse the fish, others are thought to work
by removing oxygen from the water.[22]
Cyanides are used to capture live fish near coral reefs for
the aquarium and seafood market. This illegal fishing occurs
mainly in or near the Philippines, Indonesia, and the
Caribbean to supply the 2 million marine aquarium owners in
the world. Many fish caught in this fashion die either
immediately or in shipping. Those that survive often die
from shock or from massive digestive damage. The high
concentrations of cyanide on reefs harvested in this fashion
damages the coral polyps and has also resulted in cases of cyanide
poisoning among local fishermen and their families.
Explosives
Dynamite or blast fishing, is done easily and cheaply
with
dynamite or homemade bombs made from locally available materials.
Fish are killed by the shock from the blast and are then
skimmed from the surface or collected from the bottom. The
explosions indiscriminately kill large numbers of fish and
other marine organisms in the vicinity and can damage or
destroy the physical environment. Explosions are
particularly harmful to coral reefs.[23]
Blast fishing is also illegal in many waterways around the
world.
Electrofishing
A relatively new fishing technique is electrofishing,
typically used for stream classification surveys and
catching brood stock for hatcheries, or making estimates of
populations in a body of water. A gated pulse of direct
current is used to cause muscular contractions in
a fish, called galvanotaxis, causing them to turn towards
the source of the electrical current and swim towards it
when correct pulse speeds and durations are used, along with
correct current.
A low voltage or short pulse with long gaps will cause
the fish to swim away from the device, and high voltage or
long pulses with short rests can cause galvanonarcosis, or
unconsciousness. Techniques for setting pulse length and
patterns, current and voltage require great skill to fish
effectively without killing or injuring fish if they are to
be left unharmed. Dissolved minerals in the water can
decrease resistance causing less of the current to pass
through the fish, whereas fish recently entering fresh water
from the ocean have high salinity and are more prone to
electric shock. Also the smaller the fish, and consequently
the less surface area in contact with the water, the higher
the current required to produce galvanotaxis. Smaller fish
also require shorter pulses, closer together, while large
fish should have longer pulses at lower power and longer
gaps between pulses.
Rigs can be battery powered back-packs or powered by a
generator if they are mounted in a boat. They are typically
equipped with a "dead-man switch" and a tilt switch to
disable the device if the unit is tipped or the operator
incapacitated. Protective equipment must be worn to isolate
the operator and prevent
electrocution.
Electro-fishing is also used to illegally catch Razorfish
or Spoots, using a boat based generator. Current is passed
into the sediment causing the Razorfish to 'jump' and be
harvested by divers. For obvious reasons this method of
electro-fishing is banned due to the risk to the divers.
Modern fishing
Recreational fishing
-
Recreational fishing and the closely related (nearly
synonymous) sport fishing describe fishing for pleasure or
competition. Recreational fishing has conventions, rules,
licensing restrictions and laws that limit the way in which
fish may be caught, The International Game Fishing
Association (IGFA) makes and oversees these obligations. Typically, these
prohibit the use of nets and the catching of fish with hooks
not in the mouth.
The most common form of recreational fishing is done with
a
rod, line and hooks attached to any of a wide range of lures
or baits. Most types of fishing tackle are made in a
professional manufacturing facility and other for hobbyist
enjoy making their own baits, examples would include the use
of Fishing worm molds, etc. This practice is known as
angling.
One method of growing popularity is
kayak fishing. Kayak fisherman fish from sea kayaks in
an attempt to level the playing field with fish and to
further challenge their abilities. Kayaks are extremely
stealthy and can allow anglers to reach areas unfishable
from land or by conventional boat.
In angling, it is sometimes expected or required that
fish all be returned to the water (catch and release). The
practice, however, is viewed by some with disapproval as
they consider it unethical to inflict pain on a fish for fun
or sport and not for reasons of capturing food. Anglers deny
this charge, pointing out that fish commonly feed on hard
and spiky prey items, and as such can be expected to have
tough mouths, and also that some fish will re-take a lure
they have just been hooked on, a behavior that is unlikely
if being hooked were painful. There is also some research
that shows certain types of fish such as catfish, do not
have nerves around their mouth. They most likely do not have
nerves in their mouths due to the fact that they eat animals
such as crawfish that can pinch.
In a real sense, the suitability of catch and release is
an ethical consideration and, as such, a science-based
conclusion on the issue is unavailable. Scientific studies
show a wide range of survival, depending on species,
environmental conditions, fish density and research design
(methodology). The difficulty of doing such experiments is
closely linked to the fact that negative effects of being
exposed to fishing gears develop over a long time. Keeping
fish trapped over a long period of time creates a lot of
noise which makes it hard to single out the effect of the
catch from the effect of the chosen methodology.
Nevertheless, several studies have now returned very high
survival rates (95%+) for species caught on fly and lures,
which generally tend to hook fish in the mouth and thus aid
catch and release fishing.
Proponents of catch and release also contend that the
practice is increasingly necessary in order to conserve fish
stocks in the face of burgeoning human populations, mounting
fishing pressure and worsening habitat degradation.
Opponents would prefer to ban or to severely restricting
angling, a suggestion most anglers find unpalatable.
Recreational fishermen can have profound deleterious
effects on fish stocks in commercial lakes, this is due to
anglers with poor knowledge of how to protect the fish from
damage or stress once out of the water. The fish which
suffer most are those of large, slow growing species such as
carp. The only way for growing numbers of recreational
fishermen to continue fishing is to reduce their impact on
fish populations or to increase the fish populations (e.g.
by restocking).
Catch and release, in combination with techniques such
as strong tackle (to get fish in quickly, for release in
good condition), careful handling of fish and barbless hooks
(to reduce physical damage) and quick release lead systems
such as the Korda quick release system or the E.S.P. variety
may be useful tools in this endeavour.
Barbless hooks reduce damage to minimal levels, reduce
de-hooking time and greatly aid in catch and release. Many
keen catch and release anglers use barbless hooks. Barbless
hooks can be purchased, or created by crushing the barbs on
a normal hook flat with a pair of needle-nosed pliers. It is
popularly believed barbless hooks lead to more lost fish,
but ensuring lures are equipped with split rings and keeping
the line tight while fighting fish will reduce fish losses
to levels similar to those of barbed hooks. Also using
circle hooks will cause the least amount of damage to a
fish. The design of the hook is very simple, it is like a
circle. When a fish bites the bait the hook's design causes
it to hook in the side of the fish's mouth every time. This
makes it very easy to remove the hook with minimal damage.
Setting your hook when a fish bites is also different.
Instead of snatching your line you slowly set your hook.
This alone is a lot less stressful on the fish. A circle
hook is the best choice for catch and release programs.
A recent phenomenon of recreational fishing are fishing
competitions (tournaments) where fishermen compete for
prizes based on the total weight of a given species of fish
caught within a predetermined time. This sport evolved from
local fishing contests into large competitive circuits,
especially in
North America. Competitors are most often professional
fishermen who are supported by commercial endorsements.
Other competitions is purely on length with mandatory catch
and release, either longest fish or total length is
documented with camera and a mandatory sticker, is more fair
since it’s hard to weigh a living fish accurately in a boat.
Big-game fishing describes fishing from boats to catch large
open-water species such as tuna, sharks and marlin.
Noodling and Trout tickling may be pursued as a recreation.
Laws made to control recreational fishing frequently also
attempt to control the harvest of other aquatic species,
such as frogs and turtles.
Commercial fishing
A
trawler leaving the port of Ullapool, north-west
Scotland.
-
Commercial fishing provides a large quantity of food to
many countries around the world, but those who practice it
as an industry must often pursue fish far into the ocean
under adverse conditions. Commercial fishermen harvest
almost all aquatic species, from
tuna, cod and salmon to shrimp, krill, lobster, clams, squid
and crab, in various fisheries for these species. Commercial
fishing methods have become very efficient using large nets
and sea-going processing factories. Many new restrictions
are often integrated with varieties of fishing allocation
schemes (such as individual fishing quotas), and international treaties
that have sought to limit the fishing effort and, sometimes,
capture efficiency.
Fishing methods vary according to the region, the species
being fished for, and the technology available to the
fishermen. A commercial fishing enterprise may vary from one
man with a small
boat with hand-casting nets or a few pot traps, to a
huge fleet of trawlers processing tons of fish every day.
Commercial fishing gears today are surrounding nets (e.g.
purse seine), seine nets (e.g. beach seine), trawls (e.g.
bottom trawl), dredges, hooks and lines (e.g. long line and
handline), lift nets, gillnets, entangling nets and traps.
In addition to the above, commercial fishing can also be
thought of as encompassing "pay to fish" enterprises, which
provide anglers with controlled access to stocked lakes,
ponds or canals. These provide fishing opportunities outside
of the permitted seasons and quotas applied to public
waters. In the United Kingdom, commercial fisheries of this
sort charge access fees, with prices ranging from £2 to £25
per day. In North America, establishments usually charge for
the fish caught, by length or by weight, rather than for
access to the site although some establishments charge both
types of fees. Prices for fish caught in North American "pay
to fish" waters are generally in the range of $0.10 to $0.20
per cm or from $5.00 to $10.00 per kg.
Preservation
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A fish-drying rack.
Hovden in
Norway.
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Salting of fish in factory.
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Ancient methods of preserving fish included
drying, salting, pickling and smoking. All of these
techniques are still used today but the more modern
techniques of freezing and canning have taken on a large importance.
See:
- Haddock: Arbroath Smokie (lightly smoked).
Herring: kipper (salted and smoked), surströmming
(fermented), rollmops (pickled), soused (salted).
Salmon: smoked salmon, cured salmon, and gravlax
(fermented).
Cod: stockfish (air dried), lutefisk (soaked in lye).
In the past, fishing vessels were restricted in range by
the simple consideration that the catch must be returned to
port before it spoils and becomes worthless. The development
of
refrigeration and freezing technologies transformed the
commercial fishing industry: fishing vessels could be
larger, spending more time away from port and therefore
accessing fish stocks at a much greater distance.
Refrigeration and freezing also allow the catch to be
distributed to markets further inland, reaching customers
who previously would have had access only to dried or salted
sea fish.
Canning, developed during the 19th century has also had a
significant impact on fishing by allowing seasonal catches
of fish that are possibly far from large centres of
population to be exploited. For example:
sardines.
Fish products
Food
Fried fish & French fries (fish & chips).
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The flesh of many fish are primarily valued as a source
of food; there are many
edible species of fish as well as other sea food.
Shellfish include shelled molluscs and crustaceans used as
food. Shelled molluscs include the clam, mussel, oyster,
winkle and scallop; some crustaceans are the shrimp,
lobster, crayfish, and crab.
Eggs, called roe, of various species may be eaten; roe
comes from fish and certain marine invertebrates, such as
sea urchins and shrimp. In some cultures, roe is considered
a delicacy, for example caviar from the sturgeon.
Squid and octopus are valued as food.
Sea cucumber is considered a delicacy in Chinese cooking
and is often served at New Year’s feasts, usually in soups.[24]
In some cultures, for example China, Japan, and Vietnam,
certain species of jellyfish are consumed.[25]
Fish oil is valued as a dietary supplement.
Live fish
Live fish are collected for the international live food
fish trade. Some seafood restaurants keep live fish in
aquaria for display or for cultural beliefs. The majority of
live fish kept at seafood restaurants, however, are desired
for the freshness of the seafood, being killed only
immediately before being cooked. Suiting customer
preference, this practice makes the seafood higher in
quality and better in taste. The prevalence of cultural
beliefs and consumer standards helps to drive the demand for
the live food fish trade. Hong Kong, for example, is
estimated to have imported in excess of 15,000 tonnes of live food fish in 2000. This brought the value
of their live food fish trade industry to US$400 million as
reported by the World Resources Institute.[26]
Fish can also be collected in ways that do not injure
them such as in a
seine net or by placing an electric current into the
water. Such techniques are used most often by researchers
for observation and study but are also used by those who
collect fish for the
aquarium trade. There are several organizations devoted
to improving the methods of collecting, handling,
transporting, exporting and farming of wild and domesticated
live food fish, as well as freshwater and marine tropical
fish destined for aquaria.
Other products
Pearls and mother-of-pearl are valued for their lustre.
Traditional methods of pearl hunting are now virtually extinct.
Sharkskin and rayskin which are covered with, in effect,
tiny teeth (dermal denticles) were used for the purposes
that sandpaper currently is. These skins are also used to
make leather. Sharkskin leather is used in the manufacture
of hilts of traditional Japanese swords.
Sea horse, star fish, sea urchin and sea cucumber are used
in traditional Chinese medicine.
Tyrian purple is a pigment made from marine snails Murex
brandaris and Murex trunculus.
Sepia is a pigment made from the inky secretions of
cuttlefish.
Fish glue is made by boiling the skin, bones and swim
bladders of fish. Fish glue has long been valued for its use
in all manner of products from illuminated manuscripts to
the Mongolian war bow.
Isinglass is a substance obtained from the swim bladders of
fish (especially sturgeon), it is used for the clarification
of wine and beer.
Fish emulsion is a fertilizer emulsion that is produced from
the fluid remains of fish processed for fish oil and fish
meal industrially.
Cultural references
Statue of fishermen in
Petrozavodsk, Russia.
Fishing is a widely used as a
metaphor though as such it is possibly ambiguous. On the one
hand, fishing with a net has nuances of gathering by honest
effort. For example, in the New Testament, Jesus is reported to have said to his disciples:
Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Matthew 4:19.
On the other hand, fishing with bait or lure sometimes
has nuances of catching by deception, possibly with an
implication of greed on the part of the victim. For example,
the expression "fishing expedition" (usually used to
describe a line of questioning), describes a case where the
questioner implies that he knows more than he actually does
in order to trick the target into divulging more information
than he wishes to reveal. Other examples of fishing terms
that carry a negative connotation are: "fishing for
compliments", "to be fooled hook, line and sinker" (to be
fooled beyond merely "taking the bait"), and the internet
scam of
Phishing.
- Aquaculture
Chinese fishing nets
Clam digging
Environmental effects of fishing
Fish farming
Fishing light attractor
FishBase
Fishery
-
Fishing industry
-
Fish market
-
Lobster fishing
-
Whaling
- Fishing rod
Sport Fishing
Luxury resorts
Phishing
References
- ^
Early humans followed the coast BBC News
article.
- ^
Coastal Shell Middens and Agricultural Origins in
Atlantic Europe.
- ^
Fisheries history: Gift of the Nile (pdf).
- ^
Image of an ancient angler on a wine cup.
- ^
Image of fishing illustrated in a Roman mosaic.
- ^
Job, chapter 14, Bible Wiki.
- ^
Polybius, Histories, Fishing for Swordfish.
- ^
Trout binning in The Mirror of Literature,
Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, Issue 328,
August 23, 1828, Project Gutenberg.
- ^
Image of an eel spear.
- ^
Spear fishing for eels.
- ^
Casting net.
- ^
Shore operated stationary lift nets.
- ^
KiteLines Fall 1977 (Vol. 1 No. 3) Articles on Kite
Fishing.
- ^
Jared Diamond:
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human
Societies. page 310. W.W. Norton & Company,
March 1997.
ISBN 0-393-03891-2.
- ^
Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps.
- ^
Ajumawi Fish Traps.
- ^
Dam Fishing Fishing techniques of the Baka.
- ^
The Text of Magna Carta, see paragraph 33.
- ^
Shooting and Fishing the Trent, ancient fish
traps.
- ^
Cormorant fishing: history and technique.
- ^
De Orbe Novo, Volume 1, The Eight Decades of Peter
Martyr D'Anghera, Project Gutenberg.
- ^
Ethnozoology of the Tsou People: Fishing with poison.
- ^
Explosions In The Cretan Sea: The scourge of illegal
fishing — fishing with explosives.
- ^
Asia Food, Sea Cucumber.
- ^
Asia Food, Jellyfish.
- ^
The World Resources Institute, The live reef fish
trade
External links