A Short History of Fishing Nets

 

The fishing net is also known as fishnet, is one of the oldest equipment used for fishing. It is a net laced from thin filaments to bear a resemblance with a grid. First fishnets were fabricated from natural materials like grass, tree fibers, flax, and cotton, while nowadays, most of fishing nets are fabricated of nylon, PE, PP, and even wool and silk. 

The earliest fishnet found dates from 8300 BC. It was manufactured from willow and was found among the other fishing gears in the Karelian town of Antrea. Another fishing net, but with sinkers, was found at the bottommost of a dried sea, and it dates back to the late Mesolithic time. Another interesting thing is as rock carvings found at Alta in northern Norway date between 4200 - 500 BC signify, people, animals, and religious drawings, in those carvings, are outlines of horizontal and vertical lines which some think signify fishing nets.

Native Americans on the Columbia River fabricated their nets from, nettles, grass, and the inner bark of cedar, and spruce root fibers. They employed rocks as loads and wood as floaters. Maori constructed their nets to be a thousand meters lengthwise. Ancient Egyptians were aware of the fishing nets, and we know about that from tomb paintings of 3000 BC.

Greek author Oppian wrote the Halieutica, which informs about different kinds of fishing and defines different nets. Roman poet Ovid also talks about the nets used for fishing in his works. These nets employ cork for floaters. Fishing nets didn’t change in shape too much to this day, but resources used for them did. Fishing Nets in this contemporary world are made from synthetic materials, which makes them lighter, robust, and economical. The fishing net supplier makes different types of nets in different sizes, shapes, and colors that catch different types of fishes. These nets include cast nets, gill net, lift net, tangle net, push net, trammel, etc.