Net (England: fishing net)
A fishing net is a tool used to catch aquatic animals in a netting pattern, either by dragging, covering, or scooping. It can be either mobile or stationary. The net is made of a mesh of relatively thin yarn or rope, and is attached to a float and/or weight. Early nets were made of plant fibers such as grasses, sedge, jute, hemp, and other plant fibers. Later, cotton and even wool were used. Today, almost all nets are made of synthetic polyamide fibers such as nylon. There are images showing intricate horizontal and vertical lines that are sometimes described as fishing nets. Native Americans along the Columbia River wove nets from spruce roots or wild grasses, using stones as weights, and lightweight woods such as cedar to float and scare fish into the center of the net.
The pre-European Maori were familiar with the installation of purse seines on large canoes, which could be more than a thousand meters long. The nets were woven from hemp, weighted with stones, and floated with softwood or gourds, and could be dragged by hundreds of men. The earliest recorded fishing nets were those that carried short swords and wore helmets with fish-shaped shields. Between 177 and 180 CE, the Greek writer Oppian wrote the Halieutica, a poem about fishing instruction. He described various methods of catching fish which worked while their masters slept, and described fishing with a motionless net as follows: The fishermen set up a net of light hemp floating and made a circle around it, while at the same time striking the surface of the sea with a paddle, and swung the long pole back and forth, making a continuous noise, which scared the fish and made them swim into the motionless net, thinking it was a safe haven. The stupid fish, frightened by the noise, entered the gate of doom, and the fishermen quickly dragged the ropes and the net ashore.
In Norse mythology, the giantess of the sea Rán used fishing nets to capture errant sailors. References to fishing nets can also be found in the New Testament. Jesus Christ himself is identified as a master of fishing nets. The tough inner bark of the pawpaw tree was used by Native Americans and Midwestern settlers to make ropes and fishing nets. Archaeological sites at León Viejo (1524–1610) have yielded fishing aids, including pottery used as weights for fishing nets. Modern fishing nets have not evolved much since the Neolithic period, and many are still in their original form, apart from significant improvements in rope fibers.
Both in hook and net fishing, there are traces of ancient artifacts, from a double-stranded rope about 7 mm in diameter found in a cave at Lascaux, dated to about 15,000 BC. Egyptian ropes date back to 4000 to 3500 BC and were made from water sedge fibers. Other ancient ropes were made from date palm fibers, hemp, grass, reeds, animal skins or animal hairs. Ropes made from hemp fibers were used in China from about 2800 BC.
