Stilts fishermen, Sri Lanka

Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish. By extension, the term fishing is also applied to hunting for other aquatic animals such as various types of shellfish as well as squid, octopus, turtles, frogs and some edible marine invertebrates. The term fishing is not usually applied to the hunting of aquatic mammals such as whales. Fishing is an ancient and worldwide practice with various techniques and traditions and it has been transformed by modern technological developments. It has even became a sport of some account.

Fishermen in the harbor Fishermen in the harbor of Kochi, India.

New England fishermen New England fishermen with a pile of white hake c. 1936

Cultural references

Statue of fishermen Statue of fishermen in Petrozavodsk, Russia.

Fishing is a widely used as a metaphor though as such it is possibly ambiguous. On the one hand, fishing with a net has nuances of gathering by honest effort. For example, in the New Testament, Jesus is reported to have said to his disciples: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19.

On the other hand, fishing with bait or lure sometimes has nuances of catching by deception, possibly with an implication of greed on the part of the victim. For example, the expression "fishing expedition" (usually used to describe a line of questioning), describes a case where the questioner implies that he knows more than he actually does in order to trick the target into divulging more information than he wishes to reveal. Other examples of fishing terms that carry a negative connotation are: "fishing for compliments", "to be fooled hook, line and sinker" (to be fooled beyond merely "taking the bait"), and the internet scam of Phishing.

References

  1.  Early humans followed the coast BBC News article.
  2. Coastal Shell Middens and Agricultural Origins in Atlantic Europe.
  3.  Fisheries history: Gift of the Nile (pdf).
  4.  Image of an ancient angler on a wine cup.
  5.  Image of fishing illustrated in a Roman mosaic.
  6.  Job, chapter 14, Bible Wiki.
  7.  Polybius, Histories, Fishing for Swordfish.
  8.  Trout binning in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, Issue 328, August 23, 1828, Project Gutenberg.
  9.  Image of an eel spear.
  10.  Spear fishing for eels.
  11.  Casting net.
  12.  Shore operated stationary lift nets.
  13.  KiteLines Fall 1977 (Vol. 1 No. 3) Articles on Kite Fishing.
  14.  Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. page 310. W.W. Norton & Company, March 1997. ISBN 0-393-03891-2.
  15.  Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps.
  16.  Ajumawi Fish Traps.
  17.  Dam Fishing Fishing techniques of the Baka.
  18.  The Text of Magna Carta, see paragraph 33.
  19.  Shooting and Fishing the Trent, ancient fish traps.
  20.  Cormorant fishing: history and technique.
  21.  De Orbe Novo, Volume 1, The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera, Project Gutenberg.
  22.  Ethnozoology of the Tsou People: Fishing with poison.
  23.  Explosions In The Cretan Sea: The scourge of illegal fishing — fishing with explosives.
  24.  Asia Food, Sea Cucumber.
  25.  Asia Food, Jellyfish.
  26.  The World Resources Institute, The live reef fish trade

Links

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags:Technorati Tags:
Vote
27