Capture fishing techniques

Fishing Techniques

Fishing without gear Go to Top

Fishing without gear is the simplest form of fishing and is also the oldest. This method is also called collecting by hand, and is still practiced today by professional and non-professional fishermen alike. Most fishing without gear is done during low tide in shallow water and sometimes in deeper water with or without diving suits. Sometimes primitive tools such as hoes or picks are used for collecting the aquatic animals, but they are not classified as gear

Grappling and wounding gear Go to Top

This technique involves the use of tools such as spears for catching fish and the use of rakes, clamps or tongs to collect shellfish. Other tools such as bows, guns, blowpipes, and other projective devices fall in this category

Stunning Go to Top

This technique involves stunning fish with such things as chemicals, explosions or electric shocks. After being stunned the helpless fish are collected. This technique is not considered environmentally sound and has caused extensive damage to coral reefs and is commonly outlawed.

Line fishing Go to Top

Recreational fishing involving a fishing rod is a form of line fishing. In line fishing, a bait or lure is placed on a line. Line fishing can involve one lure placed on a line or thousands, depending upon the harvest size. The most common form of commercial line fishing is long lining where many hooks are used in combination with power winches.

Trapping Go to Top

Trapping involves using some form of device that traps the intended species in it for later retrieval. Mechanical traps that are triggered by the entrance of the intended prey are rarely used by fishermen. Usually the trap uses a labyrinth or other retarding devices to prevent the animal from escaping. The diagram to the right illustrates a form of cage trapping. The most common use of this techniques are lobster and crab pots.

Trapping in the air Go to Top

Trapping in the air is another form of trapping, except the traps are placed above the water's surface to catch animals such as shrimp or flying fish. The fish are stirred up and when they try to escape they fly into the nets.

Fishing with bag nets Go to Top

Bag nets are containers made of nets that are dragged through the water, collecting the fish in its path. The nets are usually held open by a frame and the water current. Below is a diagram of what a bag net looks like and how it is used.

Dredging and Trawling Go to Top

This technique is used mainly for shellfish and other organisms such as shrimp, groundfish such as cod and silver hake (whiting), and cephalopods such as squid, that reside on the ocean floor. The design of the dredge or trawl varies depending upon the species being harvested. These tools drag across the sea floor collecting everything in its path. This is one of the most important fishing techniques, second only to seining in total catches

Seining Go to Top

Sein nets consist of a single net with two ends that is dragged through the water, collecting fish in its path. Purse seining is very similar to seining. Purse seining involves laying a long open ended net in circular fashion in the water and then carefully closing the bottom end of the net trapping the fish in the net which is then pulled out of the water.

Fishing with surrounding nets Go to Top

In this system the fish are surrounded by nets and trapped. The trapped fish are then pulled aboard the ship in the nets. Pollock are harvested using this technique.

Driving fish into a net. Go to Top

This practice is similar to the idea of stampeding a herd of cattle or horse off a cliff. In a similar fashion fish are herded together and trapped in a net.

Fishing with lift nets Go to Top

Lift nets consist of nets that are lowered into the water and then as they are lifted up out of the water they catch the fish or crustaceans swimming above it.

Fishing with falling gear Go to Top

Falling gear uses the same principle as lift nets. Using the falling gear, the nets or baskets are dropped into the water and trap everything underneath them.

Gill netting Go to Top

Gill netting involves using nets that are specially designed such that when the fish intended to be captured swims into it, its gills become caught in the net. These nets are usually allowed to drift freely as the target fish become ensnared in them. By specially designing the nets, most of the capture can be limited to the target species, however larger species can still get caught in the nets.

Fishing with entangled nets Go to Top

Entangling nets work be trapping fish in the net, causing them to become tangled in such a way that they cannot escape. Often multiple layers of nets are used to entangle the aquatic animals.

Harvesting machines Go to Top

Harvesting machines are a relatively new technique. Harvesting machines involve pumps that pump the fish out of the sea, and other tools such as mechanized dredges that dig up underground mollusks and then transport them to the surface.