Fishing and Gear Technology

Unit-1 Introduction to fishing gear

1.3. Classification of fishing gears of world and India
A. Von Brandt classified fishing gears based on these principles of capture

• Without gear – This includes hand picking, fishing with feet, simple tools for catching fish etc.
• Grappling and wounding gear – In this method, the fish are caught by grappling, squeezing, piercing, transfixing or wounding. The implements used for this are spears, clamps, tongs, rakes, harpoons etc
• Stupefying devices – they prevent fish from escaping by stupefying or stunning. This is done either by mechanical, chemical or by electrical stupefying.
• Lines – In lines, the fish is offered a bait which once taken makes them unable to escape.
• Traps – A fish enters the trap voluntarily but is prevented from coming out by means of certain arrangements.
• Fishing in the air – Aerial traps – Fish that jump out of the water when faced with an obstacle are caught in the air by special devices.
• Bag nets – These are kept open vertically by the frame and horizontally by the current. Fish enter voluntarily and are caught by filtering.
• Dragged gear – These gears are towed through the water either on or near the bottom or on the surface and manner of capture is by filtration
• Seine nets – gears with long wings and towing warps with or without bags. The manner of capture is by surrounding a certain area and towing the both ends of the gear to a fixed point on the shore or on a vessel.
• Surrounding nets – Nets that surround a shoal of fish not only from the sides but also from the bottom.
• Drive-in-nets –The fish to be caught are driven into the gear by swimming or diving fishermen.
• Lift nets –Sheets of netting are lowered into the water and lifted when the fish swim or creep on to them.
• Falling Gear – The manner of capture is to cover the fish with a gear and are normally operated in shallow waters
• Gill nets – Principle of gilling is made use of in gill nets. Fishes are caught by their gills (gilling) in the meshes of a gill net.
• Tangle nets –Fishes are caught by entangling any protruding part of their body to the net.