What is industrial or commercial fishing?
- When we speak of industrial fishing we refer to that activity that is carried out for commercial purposes through the massive capture of fish. This type of fishing requires both human and material equipment much higher in price than any form of sport fishing since its objective is to catch large quantities of fish and then proceed to sell them in the fish markets, where the fish are auctioned.
- Commercial fishing needs to be profitable, fishing boats equipped for mass capture, also, the ports must be prepared for the reception of this type of fishing vessel. There are different types of extraction in the industrial fishing, some more sustainable than others, let's go to know in detail one of the oldest primary activities of the human being, fishing as a form of sustenance.
Types of commercial or industrial fishing
- The industrial fishing can be divided according to the work zone, coastal fishing, deep-sea fishing, and great fishing, each one will need different materials and boats for its correct realization.
Coastal fishing
- For coastal fishing, medium or small size boats will be used as they will remain a few kilometers away from the coastline, these return to port each day to leave the catch of the day. Due to overfishing, this type of commercial fishing is increasingly in disuse because the seabed is more depleted by the abuse of this modality, or rather, by the methods used to perform it.
Deep-sea fishing
- It requires greater technological advances in order to be able to bring the catches to a good port, the boats used are of a larger size and with handling and processing machinery that is very useful for preserving frozen fish since this type of fishing vessel spends long periods of time at sea fishing, we are talking about weeks or even months, in search of the large shoals of fish that are there. Regarding the equipment they carry on board, we can mention fishing probes, as well as refrigeration systems to conserve fish during the long seasons they work at sea until they reach port.
Deep-sea fishing
- When we talk about large fleets of fishing vessels that operate on the high seas for long periods of time and also have other support vessels to supply supplies, fuel, and other materials to the fishing vessels, we are referring to large fishing or deep-sea fishing, being very relevant in countries with a long fishing tradition such as Russia or Japan. To have better conservation of the catches, several processes are carried out to keep the fish in perfect conditions, such as freezing or salting it, once classified and listed for greater control.
Methods of extraction in modern industrial fishing
Drift nets
- They are enormous nets that float adrift moved by the currents or the wind by the Sea, we speak about nets of stratospheric lengths, being able to arrive up to 50 km of length, we must know that the use of nets of drift of more than 2,5 km of length is totally prohibited due to their negative effect on the massive extraction of fish. The negative factor of this type of industrial fishing is known since year after year hundreds of mammals are trapped in these nets, in addition to turtles, sharks, dolphins, and even birds, a natural disaster that brings the dispute between countries interested in maintaining this form of commercial fishing, is it really worth it?
Fishing for trolling
- In addition to being used by boats in the fishing industry, this type of fishing also has its sport mode. The fishing curry consists of dragging the gear at a certain distance from the boat to attract large predators, the trawling speed and depth of the gear will depend on what type of fish you want to catch, it is common to take gear at different depths and distances to have a greater variety of catches.
The trap
- Widely used in regions of Spain on the Mediterranean coast, such as Andalusia, Valencia, Murcia, and Ceuta, specializing in tuna fishing. Basically trap fishing is the installation of a kind of maze of nets taking advantage of the migratory passage of tuna from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, this is a more sustainable fishery as there is a limited number of fishing units per year, it is clear that by proximity, Huelva will be the most benefited from this modality.