Otter fishing

Piscator: No: I pray, Sir, save me one, and I'll try if I can make her tame, as I know an ingenious gentleman in Leicestershire, Mr. Nich.

Olaus Magnus, the Archbishop of Uppsala, published a tome in 1555, De Gentibus Septentrionalibus (On Northern Peoples), which includes a sketch of a fishing otter.

[3] One of the motifs of Magnus's 1539 map of Scandinavia, Carta marina, is an otter fetching a fish for its master, who is ready with a knife and a cooking vessel on the fire.

[3] British sportsmen who had served in South India during the early years of the Raj have been known to import this practice to their homes in Europe.

[3] A Maxacali creation story from Brazil suggests that the practice of otter fishing may have been prevalent in the past.

[citation needed] Olaus Magnus wrote that the otter often fetches the catch for its master but "once in awhile forgets and eats the fish".

[3] In ancient China, the otter wore a leather harness on its body to which an iron chain was attached.

The otter's role was to search for and disturb fish hiding in nooks and crannies and force them into the net so that they were trapped.

The average catch by a single boat in a night ranges from 4 to 12 kilograms (8.8 to 26.5 lb) of crabs, fish and shrimp.

Feeroz et al. (2011) recorded a population of 176 domesticated otters amongst 46 groups of fishermen in these districts, of which 138 were working animals.