Fishing- Now & Then

Nature makes human beings feel alive and joyful. So we want to get closer to nature to escape from our dull and hectic day. Passing the time with nature and natural elements gives us immense pleasure and helps us to get rid of the boredom of the whole day or the entire week.

There are many ways, and hobbies people can get to spend time with nature like- gardening, fishing, hunting, etc. Fishing is very common among people who love nature. Fishing makes them enjoy a beautiful scene of riverside and sometimes the beautiful location of riverside sunset.

Also, many people take fishing as a profession. They are called fishermen. Many people also do the business of fishing. The fishermen do a lot of hard work to catch fish and earn their livelihood.

Ancient and Modern Fishing:

The history of fishing is very ancient. Almost 40,000 years ago, people got the concept of fishing. Since then, it has been a popular profession among mostly village people. There have been so many old fishing techniques, and with time, the techniques have changed according to people’s choices and tactics.

Are you a fishing lover? Do you want to know about the ancient and modern techniques to increase your fishing efficiency? Here you will get a thorough idea of ancient and modern techniques of fishing.

Traditional Fishing Methods:

1. Spearfishing:

Spearfishing is one of the most ancient forms of fishing. We can know about spearfishing from Greek mythologies and religious contexts. We get the earliest proof of spearfishing, mainly in India and France, 16,000 years old.

Hupa, a native tribe of America, has been practicing this fishing technique for so many years. Even the Philippines still use this technique now. Throwing spears or using archery is applied in this fishing technique. The giant fishes are mostly caught using this procedure.

2. Angling:

Angling is one of the most common and most used techniques of fishing. It is also one of the oldest. Angling involves using a hook, called an angle, and the angle is attached to the end of a line or rod. There are used baits on the angle to catch fish, and the baits vary according to fish locale.

Since the Neolithic age, angling has been used to catch fish. The oldest hook in the world was found in Japan, which is almost 22,000 years old. The ancient Greeks took this technique to the next level after discovering other kinds of fish like tuna.

3. Ice Fishing:

The Ice fishing technique is mainly used in northern countries, and it is one of the traditional fishing techniques. It is the practice of catching fish from a frozen body of water. This technique is similar to spearfishing and angling.

In this process, a unique-pronged spear is used called kakivak. This spear has a firm central prong with two elastic side arms with inward-facing blades to catch fish. Using this kakivak, people catch fish penetrating the iced body of water. In Russia, Canada, Norway, Estonia, and the United States, this technique is still in fashion.

4. Trapping:

In this practice, there is a need to construct weirs with stones or wood to trap fishes, and the weirs must be one way so that the fishes can enter the weirs but cannot get out of that. Then the fishermen strike those fishes with their kakivak.

Trapping was famous in medieval Europe and Africa. This technique is still in use.

5. Netting:

Netting is one of the popular ways of fishing, mostly used by fishermen to catch a huge amount of fish at a time. The fishing nets are made of very thin threads. Fishermen hugely use this technique from ancient age till now. This type of fishing is popular all over the world.

There are two types of fishing nets.

1. Casting nets: The casting nets have an upper opening, and fishermen throw these nets onto a school of fish. The fishes get easily stuck into those nets.
2. Gillnets: Fishermen throw the nets where they assume fishes could be. They set corks and weight to nets for buoyancy and to spread them out. The fishes get stuck for their gills with the nets, and the fishermen get to catch a huge amount of fish.

Modern Fishing Methods:

With the flow of time, technology has been developed a lot, and we can see the touch of technologies in fishing also. But it is also true that maximum ancient fishing methods have been in use over time and are even still in use.

Some of the modern fishing methods are:

1. Bottom Trawling:

In this technique, fishermen use bag-shaped trawl opening nets and make them heavy by adding weights to keep the net open as it moves through the bottom of the seas or river. This fishing method is mostly in Alaska, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest regions.

2. Blast Fishing:

Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is the process of using explosives to kill or stun fish. This is very harmful to fishes and human beings who will consume those fishes as food. This practice is also illegal because it can damage a lot of aquatic life. So fishermen must avoid this technique of fishing.

3. Cyanide Fishing:

Cyanide fishing is the process of stunning fishes using sodium cyanide for using them in an aquarium. This kind of fishing is also wrongful, and it can reduce the population of specific kinds of fish. So we should stop these processes of stunning the fishes; otherwise, it can be detrimental to the whole ecosystem.

4. Muro-Ami:

It is the practice of using an encircling net with pounding devices, which can comprise large stones. These devices are used to shatter the coral reefs. Shattering the coral reefs creates a huge size of broken pieces of rocks, which make the sea fishes scared. This crushing effect increases the chance of catching more fish at a time.

This process is also illegal as these heavy and shattered coral reefs can damage aquatic lives. So we should avoid this destructive method to save aquatic lives.

Do Nature-Friendly Fishing:

There are many established methods of fishing. Those who love fishing also must love nature. So we cannot harm nature knowingly to get more profit. Besides, we have to follow the schedule of catching fish throughout the year because there are specific times when the matured fishes spawn eggs. We have to avoid fishing at those specific times of the year to ensure proper reproduction of the fish.

People do not catch fish only as their favorite pass time. Many of them take this as a profession and earn their livelihood by catching fish. So we have to maintain a proper timetable regarding catching fish. Otherwise, there will be a threat to the existence of any specific kind of fishes which can be a threat to fishermen’s livelihood.

Also, we have to stay aware of water pollution. Pollution of water is the main reason for making aquatic lives toxic, which is ultimately bad for us because we consume the fish of ponds, rivers, or seas. So nature-friendly fishing and pollution reduction of water can provide us with healthy fish and a quality fishing time.