Development of Fishing Gears and Fishing Technology

LECTURE – 1
DEVELOPMENT OF FISHING GEARS AND FISHING TECHNOLOGY,

EVOLUTION OF FISHING GEARS
Anirudh Kumar
DEVELOPMENT OF FISHING GEARS AND FISHING TECHNOLOGY
 Fishing is an art of catching fish and other aquatic animals.

 Many years ago man started using various type of gear used for hunting the
terrestrial animals and for fishing also.
 It is very difficult to say which started first, but some time it is opined that
fishing is younger. Reason behind it is easy to catch animals in the land than
in the water.
 In older days fishing was not having much importance as there was no
demand for fish.
 Earlier fishing was restricted to a particular community but now it becomes
a business.
 In order to meet the increased demand, fishing is now carried out
industrially.
 Fishing technology not only concerns fishing gear, fishing methods and
vessels but also concern biological and environmental factors.
 Fishing technology has developed continuously by utilizing improved and
larger fishing vessels, more sophisticated fishing equipment and preservation
techniques.
 With the increase in population, larger quantities of seafood became
necessary hence individual harvesting was replaced by groups fishing with
larger and more effective fishing gear.
 Mechanization in fishing industry started during the second half of the
nineteenth century with the use of steam driven capstans.
 Steam power was successfully used in towing a trawl for the first time in
1877.
 Steam gradually replaced manual and sail propulsion.
 This was later superseded by the internal combustion engines.
 Today, the diesel engine is universally favored for larger vessels and
petrol/kerosene driven outboards for small boat operations.
 Development of electrical and hydraulic power systems led to complete
mechanization of fishing which use larger nets and lines, or more pots and
traps.
 During the last 50 years, synthetic fibers, which are virtually rot-proof,
gradually replaced natural materials in the fabrication of nets and lines.
 These materials have greatly extended the useful life of fishing gear.
 This along with the introduction of mechanized net and rope making
increased the size and complexity of nets.
 Developments in new synthetic materials and fabrication techniques are
continuously improving fishing gear effectiveness and efficiency.
 Traditionally fishermen detect fish through local knowledge, record keeping,
and observation of schools breaking to surface, and the behavior of birds and
other sea creatures.
 In deeper waters fishes were detected from the vibration of signal lines
dropped from the vessel.
 The introduction of electronic fish finding equipment a half century ago has
revolutionized the process of finding fish to catch.
 Aircraft enable much greater areas to be searched visually, while satellite
and laser technology are being utilized as aids for identifying suitable
environmental conditions.
 Fish finding sonar and echo sounders rapidly analyse signals from high
performance transducers and display detailed information to the fisherman.
EVOLUTION OF FISHING GEARS
 Before the invention of any fishing gear, men used their hands (hand
picking) to catch fish and other aquatic organisms from the shallow water
lakes, rivers and seas.
 However, it was only possible to collect sedentary, stranded slowly moving
organisms by hand picking.
 To prevent the escape of fish, methods were developed to stun and stupefy
the fish either mechanically or electrically.
 The capacity to capture live fish or the stupefied ones was limited by the
length of the arm.
 To overcome this problem and to extend the range of the fisherman, spears
or lances were developed.
 The reach of spears pushed by hand can be extended by using them as a
casting gear.
 To prevent the fish from escaping the thrown gear, facilities for retrieving
the catch are necessary which is characteristic of harpooning.
 The use of spears for catching fish implicates some injury to the prey.
 To catch delicate organisms without causing damage, a number of grasping
instruments have been developed. Eg. Clamps, tongs, rake etc.
 These gears like the spearing and shooting gear have been developed to
extend the range of the human arm and to secure the catch more efficiently.
 Luring the fish with bait and catching them led to the development of line
fishing.
 The bait is presented in such a manner that the fish is neither able to take
away the bait nor it can escape once it takes the bait.
 Various types of fishing lines have developed.
 The simplest form of fishing line is the hand line.
 The number of hand lines operated by a single man is limited. In order to
operate more lines, set lines have been developed.
 From simple fishing lines capable of catching a single fish, long lines with
thousands of hooks which extend to considerable length have been
developed.
 The need to operate over a larger area using a movable fishing line led to the
development of trolling lines.
 Fishing with primitive gear is confined to shallow water areas.
 Permanent and semi permanent and barriers were erected in the areas with
changing water level for catching fish.
 This is practiced in the areas of fresh waters and the ebb and flow areas
along the sea coast.
 The barriers prevent fish from escaping when the water recedes.
 This was the beginning of filtering fishing gear.
 After the invention of net making, netting made of fibers of different origin
were used for gear construction.
 First, fishing gear was made of wooden material like sticks and flexible
branches.
 There was a transition from wooden material to netting material in the
construction of traps and barriers and bag nets.
 The bag nets are held open by means of a frame.
 Scoop nets; scrape nets and gape nets come under this category.
 From the primitive rake, the development leads to the creation of the dredge.
 From the dredge first the dragged stow net and the trawl were developed.
 Trawling can be considered as further development of dredges.
 The desire to operate on wider areas and to catch more fish than was
permitted by the maximum length of the frames of dredges led to the
development of towing gear like trawls.
 With the advent of fish detecting devices and other electronic equipments,
mid water trawls were developed to catch pelagic species.
 Seine nets without bags have evolved from a net wall, while the seines with
a bag developed from a bag net like stow nets.
 The desire to catch the shoaling fishes without allowing them to escape led
to the evolution of surrounding nets.
 These gears are designed in such a way that they surround the fish shoal
from below as well as sides to prevent their escape in any direction e.g.
purse seines.
 On the same principle as scoop nets another type of gear called lift nets were
developed which are dipped in water and then lifted as soon as the fish have
gathered over them.
 The lift nets made of netting had their predecessors made of twigs and bast.
 Contrary to the lift nets, certain gears called falling gears secure their catch
from above.
 Gears have been developed to catch high individual value fish without
causing damage to them using the principle of gilling e.g. gill nets.
 Idea of catching fish by entangling them in water plants in earlier days led to
the development of present day entangling nets like single, double, or triple
walled (trammel) tangle nets.

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LECTURE – 1

DEVELOPMENT OF FISHING GEARS AND FISHING TECHNOLOGY,

 Fishing is an art of catching fish and other aquatic animals.

EVOLUTION OF FISHING GEARS

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