quarta-feira, 6 de maio de 2015

LOOKING BACK: THE LURE OF FISHING


By Jennifer Boyd 

Since the dawn of civilization, man has depended upon water as a means of travel, survival and nourishment. Learning to fish was a necessary skill required of every man to ensure his family received proper nourishment needed to survive and prosper. Although modern man revolutionized the art of fishing, many of the ancient techniques used more than 42,000 years ago remain the same.

Ancient fishing practices

Until recently, an ancient fish hook, which was dated to be between 16,000 and 23,000 years old, was thought to be the oldest recorded proof of man using waters as a source of food, until a team of Australian archeologists discovered bones of almost 3,000 fish in a small cave.

This cave was discovered at the eastern side of East Timor, north of Australia. After extensive research and carbon dating, they were amazed to learn the fish were caught more than 42,000 years ago. Before this cave was discovered, most biologists and archeologists believed prehistoric man was not mentally equipped with the necessary skills and tools required to catch such a massive amount of sea dwelling creatures.

Catching tuna, which was one of the types of fish discovered in this particular cave, demonstrated prehistoric man had superior maritime skills needed to catch a fish, with the speed and depth the tuna was characteristically known for having in the ocean.

Ask any deep-sea fisherman and he will admit tuna are difficult to hook today, even with the use of modern boats, GPS navigation and advanced industrial-strength fishing equipment.

Ancient man was also well versed in differing methods of fishing, depending on the environment. Spear fishing was implemented on the shore of lakes and rivers, and traps were built by using the banks as a dam and stocking bait at the lower water level.

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