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A fishing net or fish net is a net used for fishing. Fishing nets work by serving as an improvised fish trap, and some are indeed rigged as traps (e.g. fyke nets). They are usually wide open when deployed (e.g. by casting or trawling), and then close off when retrieved to engulf and trap fish and other that are larger than the holes/gaps of the net, as well as many unwanted due to the underwater area a net can cover.
Fishing nets are usually formed by a relatively thin thread, and early nets were woven from , , and other fiber crop material, while later woven cotton was used. Modern nets are usually made of artificial like nylon, although nets of organic polyamides such as wool or silk thread were common until recently and are still used.
Fishing nets are well documented in antiquity. They appear in Egyptian tomb paintings from 3000 BC. In ancient Roman literature, Ovid makes many references to fishing nets, including the use of cork floats and lead weights.Radcliffe W (1926) Fishing from the Earliest Times John Murray, London.Johnson WM and Lavigne DM (1999) Monk Seals in Antiquity Fisheries, pp. 48–54. Netherlands Commission for International Nature Protection.Gilroy, Clinton G (1845) "The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances: including observations on spinning, dyeing and weaving" pp. 455–464. Harper & Brothers, Harvard University. Pictorial evidence of Ancient Rome fishing comes from which show nets. Image of fishing illustrated in a Roman mosaic . In a parody of fishing, a type of gladiator called retiarius was armed with a trident and a Net casting. He would fight against a secutor or the murmillo, who carried a short sword and a helmet with the image of a fish on the front.Auguet, Roland 1970 (1994). Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games. London: Routledge. . Between 177 and 180 the Greek author Oppian wrote the Halieutica, a didactic poem about fishing. He described various means of fishing including the use of nets cast from boats, scoop nets held open by a hoop, and various traps "which work while their masters sleep". Here is Oppian's description of fishing with a "motionless" net:
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.
In Norse mythology the sea giantess Rán uses a fishing net to trap lost sailors. References to fishing nets can also be found in the New Testament.Luke 5:4-6; John 21:3-7a Jesus Christ was reputedly a master in the use of fishing nets. The tough, fibrous inner bark of the pawpaw was used by Native Americans and in the Midwest for making and fishing nets. The archaeological site at León Viejo (1524–1610) has fishing net artifacts including fragments of pottery used as weights for fishing nets.
Fishing nets have not evolved greatly, and many contemporary fishing nets would be recognized for what they are in Neolithic times. However, the from which the nets are constructed have hugely evolved. fragments of "probably two-ply laid rope of about 7 mm diameter" have been found in one of the caves at Lascaux, dated about 15,000 Before Christ.J.C. Turner and P. van de Griend (ed.), The History and Science of Knots (Singapore: World Scientific, 1996), 14. Egyptian rope dates back to 4000 to 3500 BC and was generally made of water reed fibers. Other rope in antiquity was made from the fibers of , flax, grass, papyrus, leather, or animal hair. Rope made of hemp fibres was in use in China from about 2800 BC.
In modern times, hemp was almost the only material in large scale use in fishing gear until 1900 when it found competition from cotton. By 1950s cotton had taken over a large fraction of fishing nets, although hemp nets were still in use in large quantities. The first nylon fishing nets emerged in Japan in 1949 (although tests of similar equipment were taking place around the world in the last years of the 1940s). In the 1950s they were adopted worldwide, replacing nets made from cotton or hemp that were used before. The introduction of synthetic fibres in fishing gear from around 1950 changed a way of using natural materials that goes back several thousands of years. In the following decades (for example in Norway in 1975, 95% of all fishing gear was made of synthetic fibre), the new synthetic materials conquered the hegemony in net fishing.Martinussen, Atle Ove (2006) "Nylon Fever: Technological Innovation, Diffusion and Control in Norwegian Fishery during the 1950s" MAST, 5(1): 29–44.
| Bottom trawling | Demersal fish such as groundfish, cod, squid, halibut and Sebastidae | A trawl is a large net, conical in shape, designed to be towed along the sea bottom. The trawl is pulled through the water by one or more boats, called trawlers or draggers. The activity of pulling the trawl through the water is called trawling or dragging. | Bottom trawling results in a lot of bycatch and can damage the sea floor. A single pass along the seafloor can remove 5 to 25% of the seabed life. A 2005 report of the UN Millennium Project, commissioned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, recommended the elimination of bottom trawling on the high seas by 2006 to protect and other ecologically sensitive habitats. In mid-October 2006, US President Bush joined other world leaders calling for a moratorium on deep-sea trawling. | |
| Cast net | Schooling and other small fish | Cast nets (throw nets) are small round nets with weights on the edges which are thrown by the fisher. Sizes vary up to about four metres in diameter. The net is thrown by hand in such a manner that it spreads out on the water and sinks. Fish are caught as the net is hauled back in. Casting net . | High discrimination possible. Non targeted fish can be released unharmed. | |
| Coracle | Coracle is performed by two people, each seated in a coracle, plying their paddle with one hand and holding a shared net with the other. When a fish is caught, each hauls up their end of the net until the two coracles are brought to touch and the fish is secured. | |||
| This is a general term which can be applied to any net which is dragged or hauled across a river or along the bottom of a lake or sea. An example is the seine net shown in the image. The fishing depth of this net can be adjusted by adding weights to the bottom. | ||||
| Beach seine | Schooling fish in shallow coastal waters | A beach seine is a long net deployed from shore and hauled back by a group of fishers standing in shallow water. The technique encircles fish as the net is gradually pulled toward the beach. It is widely used by small coastal communities for subsistence and artisanal fishing. | Low seabed impact when used on sandy shores. Bycatch varies with mesh size, but generally lower than mechanized drag nets. | ||
| Drift net | The drift net is a net that is not anchored, but is drifting with the current. It is usually a gill or tangle net, and is commonly used in the coastal waters of many countries. Its use on the high seas is prohibited, but still occurs. | |||
| A drive-in net is another fixed net, used by small-scale fishermen in some fisheries in Japan and South Asia, particularly in the Philippines. It is used to catch schooling forage fish such as Caesionidae and other reef fish. It is a dustpan-shaped net, resembling a trawl net with long wings. The front part of the net is laid along the seabed. The fishermen either wait until a school swims into the net, or they drive fish into it by creating some sort of commotion. Then the net is closed by lifting the front end so the fish cannot escape. | ||||
| (on stakes) | Fixed gillnetsFAO, Fishing Gear Types : Fixed Gillnets (on stakes), Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, 2011 are nets for catching fish in shallow . It consists of a sheet of network stretched on stakes fixed into the ground (or anchors), generally in rivers or where the sea ebbs and flows, for entangling and catching the fish. | |||
| Fyke net | Fyke nets are bag-shaped nets which are held open by hoops. These can be linked together in long chains, and are used to catch in rivers. If fyke nets are equipped with wings and leaders, they can also be used in sheltered places in lakes where there is plenty of plant life. Hundreds of these nets can be connected into systems where it is not practical to build large traps. fyke net (2008) In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 24, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online. It is similar to putcher fishing. | |||
| Gillnet | , salmon, cod | The gillnet catches fish which try to pass through it by snagging on the gill covers. Thus trapped, the fish can neither advance through the net nor retreat. Uses a system of nets with floats and weights. The nets are anchored to the sea floor and allowed to float at the surface | Animals cannot see the net, so they swim into it and are tangled. High risk of bycatch. | |
| Ghost net | Ghost nets are nets that have been lost at sea. They may continue to be a menace to marine life for many years. | |||
| Haaf net | Salmon | The haaf net is set in a rectangular wooden frame usually about four or five metres long and two metres wide supported by three legs. A central pole extends from one of the longer edges at a right angle. The fisherman wades into deep water and submerges the net, holding it upright with the central pole. When a fish swims into the net the fisherman tilts the pole backwards to scoop the net upwards, thereby trapping the fish. | ||
| Hand net | Hand nets, also called scoop or dip nets, are held open by a hoop and may be attached to a short or a long stiff handle. They have been known since antiquity and can be used for sweeping up fish near the water surface like muskellunge and northern pike. When such a net is used by an Fisherman to help land a fish, it is a landing net. Fishing Tools - Landing Nets In England, hand netting is the only legal way of catching and has been practised for thousands of years on the Rivers River Parrett and River Severn. | |||
| Keepnets are tube-shaped nets used to keep caught fish alive by serving as an improvised fish cage. When in use, the main body of the net is submerged in the same waterbody, and any fish placed inside can still gas exchange and move around but cannot escape because the only exit of the net is fixed on land or above water. It is a far more humane tool to contain captured fish alive than , though also more cumbersome to transport and deploy. | ||||
| Landing nets are short- handnets that are used to help lift fish out of the water, most commonly in angling. Landing nets are typically used for catching medium-sized game fish such as the common carp, salmon/trout and Esox, which are too heavy to lifted by the fishing line alone. | ||||
| Lave net | A special form of large hand net is the lave net, now used in very few locations on the River Severn in England and Wales. The lave net is set in the water and the fisherman waits till he feels a fish hit against the mesh and the net is then lifted. Fish as large as sturgeon are caught in lave nets. | |||
| Lift net | A lift net has an opening which faces upwards. The net is first submerged to a desired depth, and then lifted or hauled from the water. It can be lifted either manually (hand lift net) or mechanically (shore-operated lift net), and can be operated on a boat (boat-operated lift net)FAO, Lift net Fishing Gear Types. Retrieved 12 October 2013. | |||
| Midwater trawl | Pelagic fish such as anchovies, shrimp, tuna and mackerel | In midwater trawling a cone-shaped net is towed behind a single boat and spread by trawl doors (image), or it can be towed behind two boats (pair trawling) which act as the spreading device. | Midwater trawling is relatively benign compared to the damage bottom trawling can inflict on the sea bottom. | |
| Plankton net | Plankton | collect plankton from the ocean using fine mesh plankton nets. The vessels either tow the nets through the sea or pump sea water onboard and then pass it through the net. Ichthyoplankton sampling methods Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA. Modified 3 September 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2011. | ||
| Purse seine | Schooling fish | The purse seine, widely used by commercial fishermen, is an evolution of the surround net, which in turn is an evolution of the seine net. A large net is used to surround fish, typically an entire fish school, on all sides. The bottom of the net is then closed by pulling a line arranged like a drawstring used to close the mouth of a purse. This completely traps the fish. | Higher chance of bycatch | |
| Shrimp | A push net is a "small triangular fishing net with a rigid frame that is pushed along the bottom in shallow waters and is used in parts of the southwestern Pacific for taking shrimps and small bottom-dwelling fishes".Commission of the European Communities, Multilingual dictionary of fishing gear , 2nd edition, 1992 (n° 3247 p.183205). | |||
| Seine net | A Seine fishing is a large fishing net that may be arranged in a number of different ways. In purse seine fishing the net hangs vertically in the water by attaching weights along the bottom edge and floats along the top. A simple and commonly used fishing technique is with beach seine, where the seine net is operated from the shore. Danish seine is a method which has some similarities with trawling. In the UK seine netting for salmon and sea-trout in coastal waters is only permitted in a very few locations and where it is permitted one end of the seine must remain fixed and the other end is then waded out and returns to the fixed point. This variant is called wade netting and is strictly controlled by law. | |||
| Pelagic species | These are held horizontally by a large fixed structure and periodically lowered into the water. Huge mechanical contrivances hold out horizontal nets with diameters of twenty metres or more. The nets are dipped into the water and raised again, but otherwise cannot be moved. The nets may hold bait or be fitted with lights to attract more fish.Commission of the European Communities, Multilingual dictionary of fishing gear , 2nd edition, 1992 (n° 3062 p.5678). The most famous examples are found at Kochi, India, where they are known as Chinese fishing nets ( Cheena vala). Despite this name, this technique is used all over the world. They are also widely used on the Atlantic coast of France, where they are operated from small huts built over the water on stilts, known as carrelets, and on the Adriatic coast of Italy as trabucco. | |||
| Surrounding net | A surrounding net surrounds fish on all sides. It is an evolution of the seine, and is typically used by commercial fishers. | |||
| Tangle net | Tangle nets, also known as tooth nets, are similar to gillnets except they have a smaller mesh size designed to catch fish by the teeth or upper jaw bone instead of by the gills. Selective Fishing Methods Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Retrieved 13 November 2011. | |||
| Demersal species, fish and crustaceans. | A trammel is a fishing net with three layers of netting that is used to entangle fish or crustacea. A slack central layer with a small mesh is sandwiched between two taut outer layers with a much larger mesh. The net is kept vertical by the floats on the headrope and weights on the bottomrope. Floats can be small, cylindrical or egg-shaped, solid and plastic. They are attached on the head rope while weights made up of lead are distributed along the ground rope. | Fishers can lose these nets. This can result in "ghost fishing", with associated loss of marine animals continuing for the remaining life of the net. The net also captures small sized organisms and non-target species. Such impact can be regulated by using larger meshes, however compared to gillnets the selectivity of trammel nets are lower and catches of small organisms and non-target species are common. |
Despite their ornamental value, dog conches are traditionally used by local fishermen as sinkers for their fishing nets.J. M. Poutiers (1998). 9789251040515, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). ISBN 9789251040515Purchon, R. D. & Purchon D. E. A. (1981). " The marine shelled Mollusca of West Malaysia and Singapore. Part I. General introduction and account of the collecting stations". Journal of Molluscan Studies 47: 290–312.
Fishing nets, usually made of plastic, can be left or lost in the ocean by fishermen. Known as , these entangle fish, whales, , , , , , , , and other creatures, restricting movement, causing starvation, laceration and infection, and, in those that need to return to the surface to breathe, suffocation.
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