History of fishing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Great Fish Market, painted by Jan Brueghel the Elder

Fishing is the practice of catching fish. It is a pre-historic practice dating back at least 40,000 years.
Since the 16th century fishing vessels have been able to cross oceans in pursuit of fish and since
the 19th century it has been possible to use larger vessels and in some cases process the fish on
board. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand
gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping.
The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such
as shellfish, cephalopods, crustaceans, and echinoderms. The term is not usually applied to
catching aquatic mammals, such as whales, where the term whaling is more appropriate, or
to farmed fish. In addition to providing food, modern fishing is also a recreational sport.
According to FAO statistics, the total number of fishermen and fish farmers is estimated to be 38
million. Fisheries and aquaculture provide direct and indirect employment to over 500 million
people.[1] In 2005, the worldwide per capita consumption of fish captured from wild fisheries was 14.4
kilograms, with an additional 7.4 kilograms harvested from fish farms.[2]

Contents
[hide]

1Prehistory
2Early history
o 2.1Gillnet
o 2.2Cod trade
3Modern trawling
o 3.1Early modern designs
o 3.2Modern fishing trawler
3.2.1Advent of steam power
3.2.2Further development
4Recreational fishing
o 4.1Origins
o 4.2Development
o 4.3Technological improvements
o 4.4Expansion
5Fishing in art
6See also
 7Notes
8References
9External links

Prehistory[edit]

Stone Agefish hook made from bone.

Fishing is an ancient practice that dates back at least to the Upper Paleolithic period which began
about 40,000 years ago.[3][4] Isotopic analysis of the skeletal remains of Tianyuan man, a 40,000-
year-old modern human from eastern Asia, has shown that he regularly consumed freshwater
fish.[5][6] Archaeological features such as shell middens,[7] 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-gatherer 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.
Spearfishing with barbed poles (harpoons) was widespread in palaeolithic times.[8] Cosquer cave in
Southern France contains cave art over 16,000 years old, including drawings of seals which appear
to have been harpooned.
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 the main fishing methods that are
still used today.
From 7500 to 3000 years ago, Native Americans of the California coast were known to engage in
fishing with gorge hook and line tackle.[9] In addition, some tribes are known to have used plant
toxins to induce torpor in stream fish to enable their capture.[10]
Copper harpoons were known to the seafaring Harappans[11] well into antiquity.[12] Early hunters in
India include the Mincopie people, aboriginal inhabitants of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands,
who have used harpoons with long cords for fishing since early times.[13]

Early history[edit]

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.[14] The Egyptians invented various implements and methods for fishing and these are
clearly illustrated in tomb scenes, drawings, and papyrus documents. Simple reed boatsserved 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.

Fishing with nets, Tacuinum Sanitatis casanatensis (14th century)

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?
Unlike in Minoan culture,[15] fishing scenes are rarely represented in ancient Greek culture, a
reflection of the low social status of fishing.[citation needed] There is a wine cup, dating from c. 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 there is 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.[16]
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.
 Dutch fishermen using tridents in the 17th century

The Greek historian Polybius (ca 203 BC120 BC), in his Histories, describes hunting for
swordfish by using a harpoon with a barbed and detachable head.[17]
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.[18] 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.

Pearl Fishery at Tuticorin camp of paravar, 1662, by Johan Nieuhof.

In India, the Pandyas, a classical Dravidian Tamil kingdom, were known for the pearl fishery as
early as the 1st century BC. Their seaport Tuticorin was known for deep sea pearl fishing.
The paravas, a Tamil caste centred in Tuticorin, developed a rich community because of their
pearl trade, navigation knowledge and fisheries.
In Norse mythology the sea giantess Rn uses a fishing net to trap lost sailors.
The Moche people of ancient Peru depicted fisherman in their ceramics.[19]
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 28002600 BC: of these Fuxiwas reputed
to be the inventor of writing, hunting, trapping, and fishing.

Poseidon/Neptune sculpture in Copenhagen Port.

Fresco of a fisherman from the Bronze Age excavation of the Minoantown Akrotiri on the Greek
island of Santorini.

Relief of fishermen collecting their catch from Mererukas tomb, 6th dynasty

Moche fisherman. 300 A.D. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru.

Gillnet[edit]
See also: Gillnetting history
Gillnets existed in ancient times as archaeological evidence from the Middle East
demonstrates.[20] In North America, aboriginal fishermen used cedar canoes and natural fibre
nets, e.g., made with nettels or the inner bark of cedar.[21] They would attach stones to the
bottom of the nets as weights, and pieces of wood to the top, to use as floats. This allowed the
net to suspend straight up and down in the water. Each net would be suspended either from
shore or between two boats. Native fishers in the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Alaska still
commonly use gillnets in their fisheries for salmon and steelhead.
Both drift gillnets and setnets also have been widely adapted in cultures around the world. The
antiquity of gillnet technology is documented by a number of sources from many countries and
cultures. Japanese records trace fisheries exploitation, including gillnetting, for over 3,000 years.
Many relevant details are available concerning the Edo period (16031867).[22] Fisheries in
the Shetland Islands, which were settled by Norsemen during the Viking era, share cultural and
technological similarities with Norwegian fisheries, including gillnet fisheries for herring.[23] Many
of the Norwegian immigrant fishermen who came to fish in the great Columbia River salmon
fishery during the second half of the 19th century did so because they had experience in the
gillnet fishery for cod in the waters surrounding the Lofoten Islands of
northern Norway.[24] Gillnets were used as part of the seasonal round by Swedish fishermen as
well.[25] Welsh and English fishermen gillnetted for Atlantic salmon in the rivers
of Wales and England in coracles, using hand-made nets, for at least several centuries.[26] These
are but a few of the examples of historic gillnet fisheries around the world.
Cod trade[edit]
See also: Cod trade

Stockfish

One of the worlds longest lasting trade histories is the trade of dry cod from the Lofoten area to
the southern parts of Europe, Italy, Spainand Portugal. The trade in cod started during
the Viking period or before, has been going on for more than 1000 years and is still important.
Cod has been an important economic commodity in an international market since
the Viking period (around 800 AD). Norwegians used dried cod during their travels and soon a
dried cod market developed in southern Europe. This market has lasted for more than 1000
years, passing through periods of Black Death, wars and other crises and still is an important
Norwegian fish trade.[27] The Portuguese have been fishing cod in the North Atlantic since the
15th century, and clipfish is widely eaten and appreciated in Portugal. The Basques also played
an important role in the cod trade and are believed to have found the Canadian fishing banks in
the 16th century. The North American east coast developed in part due to the vast amount of
cod, and many cities in the New England area spawned near cod fishing grounds.

Postcard of fishing vessels at the Portland Dock, Maine, c. 1908.

Apart from the long history this particular trade also differs from most other trade of fish by the
location of the fishing grounds, far from large populations and without any domestic market. The
large cod fisheries along the coast of North Norway (and in particular close to
the Lofoten islands) have been developed almost uniquely for export, depending on sea
transport of stockfish over large distances.[28] Since the introduction of salt, dried salt
cod ('klippfisk' in Norwegian) has also been exported. The trade operations and the sea
transport were by the end of the 14th century taken over by the Hanseatic League, Bergen being
the most important port of trade.[29]
William Pitt the Elder, criticizing the Treaty of Paris in Parliament, claimed that cod was "British
gold"; and that it was folly to restore Newfoundland fishing rights to the French. In the 17th and
18th centuries, the New World, especially in Massachusetts and Newfoundland, cod became a
major commodity, forming trade networks and cross-cultural exchanges.

Modern trawling[edit]
See also: Trawling history
Early modern designs[edit]

Herring Buss taking aboard its drift net (G. Groenewegen)

In the 15th century, the Dutch developed a type of seagoing herring drifter that became a
blueprint for European fishing boats. This was the Herring Buss, used by Dutch herring
fishermen until the early 19th centuries. The ship type buss has a long history. It was known
around 1000 AD in Scandinavia as a bza, a robust variant of the Viking longship. The first
herring buss was probably built in Hoorn around 1415. The last one was built in Vlaardingen in
1841.
The ship was about 20 metres long and displaced between 60 and 100 tons. It was a massive
round-bilged keel ship with a bluff bow and stern, the latter relatively high, and with a gallery.
The busses used long drifting gill nets to catch the herring. The nets would be retrieved at night
and the crews of eighteen to thirty men[30] would set to gibbing, salting and barrelling the catch on
the broad deck. The ships sailed in fleets of 400 to 500 ships[30] to the Dogger Bank fishing
grounds and the Shetland isles. They were usually escorted by naval vessels, because the
English considered they were "poaching". The fleet would stay at sea for weeks at a time. The
catch would sometimes be transferred to special ships (called ventjagers), and taken home
while the fleet would still be at sea (the picture shows a ventjager in the distance).[30]
A dogger viewed from before the port beam. c. 1675 by Willem van de Velde the Younger

During the 17th century, the British developed the dogger, an early type of
sailing trawler or longliner, which commonly operated in the North Sea. The dogger takes its
name from the Dutch word dogger, meaning a fishing vessel which tows a trawl. Dutch trawling
boats were common in the North Sea, and the word dogger was given to the area where they
often fished, which became known as the Dogger Bank.[31]
Doggers were slow but sturdy, capable of fishing in the rough conditions of the North Sea.[32] Like
the herring buss, they were wide-beamed and bluff-bowed, but considerably smaller, about 15
metres long, a maximum beam of 4.5 metres, a draught of 1.5 metres, and displacing about 13
tonnes. They could carry a tonne of bait, three tonnes of salt, half a tonne each of food and
firewood for the crew, and return with six tonnes of fish.[32] Decked areas forward and aft
probably provided accommodation, storage and a cooking area. An anchor would have allowed
extended periods fishing in the same spot, in waters up to 18 metres deep. The dogger would
also have carried a small open boat for maintaining lines and rowing ashore.[32]

A banks dory used for cod fishing from the Gazela

A precursor to the dory type was the early French bateau type, a flat bottom boat with straight
sides used as early as 1671 on the Saint Lawrence River.[33] The common coastal boat of the
time was the wherry and the merging of the wherry design with the simplified flat bottom of the
bateau resulted in the birth of the dory. Anecdotal evidence exists of much older precursors
throughout Europe. England, France, Italy, and Belgium have small boats from medieval periods
that could reasonably be construed as predecessors of the Dory.[34]