Introduction to Fishing Gear and Fisheries

Flashcards reviewing key vocabulary, gear types, ecological impacts, statistics, and industrial versus small-scale fishery concepts from the lecture.

Global Harvest of Wild Animals

The major global role of fisheries in harvesting wild aquatic animals for human consumption and other uses.

Target Catch

Species primarily sought by fishermen in a particular fishery, including both primary and secondary target species.

Bycatch

Organisms caught incidentally in a fishery that are not the intended target, which may be retained, sold, released, or discarded.

Economic Bycatch

Incidental catch that is discarded because it has little to no economic value.

Regulatory Bycatch

Incidental catch that is discarded specifically due to fishery regulations and management constraints.

Discards

The portion of the catch released back into the water, dead or alive, before offloading due to regulatory constraints or lack of value.

Coastal Zone Fishing Gear

Fishing gear commonly used in nearshore coastal waters, including seines, diving, traps/pots, nets, hand lines, pound nets, and pole and line.

Continental Shelf Fishing Gear

Fishing gear operated on the continental shelf, including trawls, purse seines, traps, set and drift nets, longlines, and trolling.

High Seas Fishing Gear

Fishing gear deployed in open ocean waters, including pelagic trawls, drift nets, pelagic longlines, purse seines, and jack poling.

Passive Fisheries

Stationary fishing operations that rely on gear remaining in one place to attract or entrap fish, using low fuel consumption.

Ghost Fishing

The continuous catching and killing of marine organisms by lost, abandoned, or derelict fishing gear such as nets, traps, or pots.

Pound Nets

Stationary, passive fishing gear that is moderately to very selective, used to catch schooling or migrating finfish and rays.

Traps and Pots

Very selective passive gear that uses bait to target species like crabs, lobster, rockfish, and groundfish.

Pelagic Longline

Passive baited gear set in open water columns targeting tuna, swordfish, mahi-mahi, and sharks, which incurs significant bycatch of turtles, sharks, and birds.

Demersal Longline

Unselective passive baited gear set near the sea floor targeting groundfish, rockfish, and sharks, which can cause damage to sensitive benthic habitat.

Gillnets

Unselective passive entangling nets targeting species like swordfish, mahi, salmon, rockfish, and sharks, with set nets posing habitat damage risks.

Active Fisheries

Fishing methods where gear moves through the water to trap or encircle fish, characterized by higher fuel consumption.

Demersal (Bottom) Trawl

Unselective active towed gear targeting shrimp, groundfish, finfish, crabs, and lobster that causes serious benthic habitat damage.

Midwater Trawl

Active towed gear operating above the seabed that is more selective than bottom trawls when targeting specific depths or species like anchovies and groundfish.

Dredges

Active targeted harvesting gear dragged along the sea floor to collect shellfish such as scallops and clams, causing serious habitat damage.

Poling (Pole and Line)

Active, baited hook-and-line technique associated with high selectivity and very low bycatch, mostly targeting albacore and mahi-mahi.

Trolling

Active fishing method towing baited hooks or lures behind a moving boat that is extremely selective for species like albacore, mahi-mahi, and salmon.

Squid Jigging

Very selective active fishing method using lighted jigs or lures operated by hand or machine to target squid with minimal bycatch.

Purse Seine

Active encircling net used to target schooling fish like tuna, sardines, herring, anchovy, and mackerel, carrying a bycatch risk for dolphins.

Harpooning

Small-scale, active, and extremely selective fishing method targeting bluefin tuna and swordfish with virtually no bycatch.

Industrial-Scale Fisheries

Large-scale commercial operations typically utilizing single species targets, large mechanized vessels, advanced navigation technology, and high fuel consumption.

Small-Scale Fisheries

Multi-species and multi-gear fisheries using small vessels with low mechanization and fuel consumption, widely operated in developing nations' coastal zones.

Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE)

A metric measuring fishing efficiency, which is typically high in industrial fisheries and variable in small-scale fisheries.

Non-Food Uses of Aquatic Production

The portion of global aquatic animal harvest (about $11\%$) directed toward non-food products, mainly fishmeal and fish oil.

Small-Scale Fisheries Workforce Contribution

Small-scale fisheries support approximately $90\%$ of the global capture-fisheries workforce and contribute about $40\%$ of global catch.

Industrial Fisheries Workforce Ratio

Industrial fishing fleets employ $10\%$ of global fisheries workers and generate $1\text{ job per }100\text{ tons}$ of fish.

Small-Scale Fisheries Workforce Ratio

Small-scale fisheries generate $40\text{ jobs per }100\text{ tons}$ of fish caught.

Women in Post-Harvest Seafood Sector

Women make up approximately $62\%$ of workers in the post-harvest sector of small-scale fisheries where sex-disaggregated data are available.

Livelihood Dependence on Small-Scale Fisheries

Approximately $500\text{ million people}$ worldwide depend on small-scale fisheries for their livelihoods.

Global Population Dependent on Fish

An estimated $800\text{ million people}$ globally depend on fish across various sectors of the seafood value chain.

Top Traded Developing Country Commodity

Fish, which accounts for $39\text{ trillion US\$}$ in net exports from developing countries, outranking coffee, sugar, and bananas.

3 D's (+ V) of Small-Scale Fisheries

The defining characteristics of small-scale fisheries: Diverse, Dynamic, Decentralized, and Vulnerable.

Diversity in Small-Scale Fisheries

The operational characteristic of using multiple fisheries, multiple gear types and practices, and harvesting multiple species.

Dynamism in Small-Scale Fisheries

The ability to adapt to spatial/temporal variations, rapidly changing ecological and market conditions, and flexible gear targets.

Decentralization in Small-Scale Fisheries

Management and community organization structured through fishing cooperatives, fish camps, communities, or informal governance.

Vulnerability in Small-Scale Fisheries

Susceptibility to external market forces, global trade pressures, dangerous working conditions, and slim profit margins.

Biological Sustainability Status of Marine Stocks

FAO 2026 assessment indicating $62.4\%$ of assessed marine stocks were biologically sustainable, while $37.6\%$ were not.

Aquatic Protein Reliance

Aquatic foods provide at least $20\%$ of animal protein for approximately $3.1\text{ billion people}$.

Global Capture Fisheries Trend

Wild capture fishery production levels that have largely plateaued since the $1980\text{s}$ despite increasing global demand.

Ecosystem-Level Ecological Impacts

Impacts from fishing that propagate across multiple biological scales from population parameters to community structure and whole ecosystems.

Cumulative Bycatch Effort

The total impact where high fleet-wide fishing effort produces substantial cumulative bycatch, even if individual vessels appear selective.

Primary Target Species

The main species primarily sought by fishermen during a specific fishing activity.

Secondary Target Species

Additional valuable species sought alongside primary targets during a fishing operation.

On-Vessel Processing

A feature of industrial fisheries where several stages of the seafood supply chain occur directly aboard large vessels.

Vaquita

The world's most endangered marine mammal, critically threatened by illegal fishing for totoaba fish in the Upper Gulf of California.