Fishing

According to the United Nations FAO statistics, the total number of commercial fishers and fish farmers is estimated to be 39.0 million.

[3] Fishing is an ancient practice that dates back to at least the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period about 40,000 years ago.

[4] Isotopic analysis of the remains of Tianyuan man, a 40,000-year-old modern human from eastern Asia, has shown that he regularly consumed freshwater fish.

[5][6] Archaeology features such as shell middens,[7] discarded fish bones, and cave paintings show that seafood was important for survival and consumed in significant quantities.

By the early 19th century, the fishers at Brixham needed to expand their fishing area further than ever before due to the ongoing depletion of stocks that was occurring in the overfished waters of South Devon.

The Brixham trawler that evolved there was of a sleek build and had a tall gaff rig, which gave the vessel sufficient speed to make long-distance trips out to the fishing grounds in the ocean.

[10] This revolutionary design made large-scale trawling in the ocean possible for the first time, resulting in a massive migration of fishers from the ports in the south of England, to villages further north, such as Scarborough, Hull, Grimsby, Harwich and Yarmouth, that were points of access to the large fishing grounds in the Atlantic Ocean.

David Allen designed and made the earliest purpose-built fishing vessels in Leith, Scotland in March 1875, when he converted a drifter to steam power.

The earliest English essay on recreational fishing was published in 1496, by Dame Juliana Berners, the prioress of the Benedictine Sopwell Nunnery.

The essay was titled Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle,[17] and included detailed information on fishing waters, the construction of rods and lines, and the use of natural baits and artificial flies.

[18] Recreational fishing took a great leap forward after the English Civil War, where a newly found interest in the activity left its mark on the many books and treatises that were written on the subject at the time.

Leonard Mascall in 1589 wrote A booke of Fishing with Hooke and Line along with many others he produced in his life on game and wildlife in England at the time.

Running rings began to appear along the fishing rods, which gave anglers greater control over the cast line.

By the mid to late 19th century, expanding leisure opportunities for the middle and lower classes began to have an effect on fly fishing, which steadily grew in mass appeal.

The expansion of the railway network in Britain allowed the less affluent for the first time to take weekend trips to the seaside or rivers for fishing.

The reel was a wide drum that spooled out freely and was ideal for allowing the bait to drift a long way out with the current.

[24] The material used for the rod itself changed from the heavy woods native to England to lighter and more elastic varieties imported from abroad, especially from South America and the West Indies.

However, these early fly lines proved troublesome as they had to be coated with various dressings to make them float and needed to be taken off the reel and dried every four hours or so to prevent them from becoming waterlogged.

The term can also be applied to methods for catching other aquatic animals such as molluscs (shellfish, squid, octopus) and edible marine invertebrates.

Some examples are hooks, lines, sinkers, floats, rods, reels, baits, lures, spears, nets, gaffs, traps, waders, and tackle boxes.

Fish are caught for recreational purposes from boats which range from dugout canoes, float tubes, kayaks, rafts, stand up paddleboards, pontoon boats and small dinghies to runabouts, cabin cruisers and cruising yachts to large, hi-tech and luxurious big game rigs.

The most common form of recreational fishing is done with a rod, reel, line, hooks and any one of a wide range of baits or lures such as artificial flies.

[35] The commercial activity is aimed at the delivery of fish and other seafood products for human consumption or use as raw material in other industrial processes.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the total world capture fisheries production in 2000 was 86 million tons (FAO 2002).

The top producing countries were, in order, the People's Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan), Peru, Japan, the United States, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, India, Thailand, Norway, and Iceland.

Some of these species are herring, cod, sardine, anchovy, tuna, flounder, mullet, squid, shrimp, salmon, crab, lobster, oyster and scallops.

Laboratory experiments have shown that fish do react to painful stimuli (e.g., injections of bee venom) in a similar way to mammals.

Some believe it is not cruel if you release the catch back to where it was caught however a study in 2018 states that the hook damages an important part of the feeding mechanism by which the fish sucks in food, ignoring the issue of pain.

Abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) can have serious impacts on marine organisms through entanglement and ingestion.

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, in which a third party will duplicate a website where the user would put sensitive information (such as bank codes).