History of the Capture fishing Industry

History of the Capture Fishing Industry

Fishing for sustenance has been practiced since the time when hunter-gatherers roamed the Earth thousands of years ago. The hunter-gatherers were limited to catching small quantities of fish from shallow lakes and along the seashore. The hunter-gatherers did not have the equipment or expertise with which to harvest large quantities of fish from the oceans, or even large lakes. Archeological evidence indicates that the majority of the hunter-gatherers seafood efforts rested in the harvesting of shellfish, such as clams, which are easy to catch and process by hand.

Before large civilizations or settlements developed, most food was consumed almost immediately after capture or harvest. However, as the population grew, survival necessitated the preservation and storage of foodstuffs. During the Mesolithic Period (c. 10,000-6,000 BC), the first civilizations developed that relied heavily on fish for sustenance. These societies developed primitive fishing tools, such as stone-tipped fishing spears, fishhooks, fish lines, and nets. As a result of the increased harvests, techniques of preservation such as salting, drying, smoking, and fermentation were developed on a large scale. For the first time the harvest of large quantities of foodstuffs, including fish, could be harvested without wasting a significant portion of the harvest due to deterioration.

Chinese Fishing Boats As the fishing techniques developed within these societies larger and larger fishing craft were developed which could venture further out to sea and harvest more fish per venture. It was about this time that fishing developed into a defined vocation and the fishing industry was born.

As the population grew, new pressures affected the growth of the fishing industry. The first was the development of larger markets. With the larger markets came the need for more fish. In response to these pressures fishermen developed larger nets and gear. Simple fishing lines with a single hook were replaced by long lines with hundreds, or thousands of hooks. Small traps were enlarged and combined into systems of hundreds of traps. As the fishing equipment grew, so did the crews that managed them. Slowly over the centuries, culminating in the 20th century, bulk fishing developed. Among the early fish to be harvested was the herring, which was collected in large quantities during the middle ages.

Many of the most noticeable and important changes in the fishing industry have come in the past 150 years. The first modern improvement to the fishing fleet was mechanization. By the late 1800's sailing boats were being replaced by steamships. The era of the steamers, however, was short as they were quickly replaced by motor driven vessels early in the 20th century. The next major advance came in the 1940's when instrumentation was introduced into the fishing industry. During this time such technologies as echo sounder (to locate schools of fish) and later sonar, were introduced.

Fishing Boats As the fishing industry grew and new larger and improved gear was added to the fisherman's arsenal, new fishing techniques were introduced. Also developed were new machines to manufacture the new fishing gear. One major advancement was mechanical net making which allowed larger nets to be created more efficiently. Over time the techniques and materials used to construct the nets improved. With mechanical net making the traditional netting fibers, hemp and linen were replaced with cotton and hard fibers. Later after World War II these were replaced with other synthetic, rot-proof materials.

Despite the much larger fishing equipment developed in the past several hundred years, mechanical tools such as the winch and pulley were not introduced into the fish industry until the beginning of the 20th century. During the 1950's mechanization of fishing equipment made several large advances. The invention of the power block to haul the gear significantly reduced the labor involved in preparing and moving equipment. Another important development was the invention of a power-driven drum to haul in and store large nets.

During the 1970's and 1980's fishing ships began to become more fully automated, with the trend towards full automation becoming common. On of the major technological advances that made this possible was the computer, which helped facilitate the complicated operations involved in fishing.