Sea fishing methods

Hauling in fish during commercial sea fishing. Image credit pinterest.comg

• The types of fishing methods employed in sea fishing are determined by the type of fish being exploited.
• There are two main types of fish found in the oceans of Southern Africa, namely pelagic or surface fishes and deep-sea fishes.
• There is also a third small group of sea-bed fishes.

Surface fishing

• This is for fishes that swim on the surface of the sea.
• They are usually small.
• They are found less than 50 m below the surface and swim in large schools called shoals.
• Examples of such fish include sardines and anchovies.
• They feed on small plants and micro-organisms.
• Fishers use floating gill or drift net as well as seine nets, which can float on the surface.
• These have floats on one side and sinkers on the other side.
• Small sine boats are used.
• The pelagic fisheries are fairly close to the coast.
• The fish are caught in large numbers hence they are quickly over-exploited.

Deep sea fishing

• Deep sea fishing is carried out for fish species found below 50 metres just above the sea bed.
• These are usually large fish which feed on other sea organisms and small fish.
• Common species are the hake and mackerel.
• Fisheries usually use trawl nets and bigger trawl boats.

Sea bed fishing

• Sea bed species include rock lobsters, crabs and prawns.
• These are normally exploited using scooping or sea bed trawling.
• Destructive methods like dynamite fishing are sometimes used to get the sea bed species out of the coastal reefs.
• This involves blasting sea rock with dynamite to expose the lobsters and crabs.

To access more topics go to the O Level Geography Notes page