Current evidence for the earliest fishing by modern evolved humans is from approximately 162,000 BC.

Since the 16th century, fishing vessels have been able to cross oceans in pursuit of fish, and since the 19th century it has been possible to use larger vessels and in some cases process the fish on board. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping.

The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as shellfish, cephalopods, crustaceans and echinoderms. The term is not usually applied to catching aquatic mammals, such as whales, where the term whaling is more appropriate, or to farmed fish. In addition to providing food, modern fishing is also recreational sport.

According to FAO statistics, the total number of fishermen and fish farmers is estimated to be 38 million. Fisheries and aquaculture provide direct and indirect employment to over 500 million people.Fisheries and Aquaculture in our Changing Climate Policy brief of the FAO for the UNFCCC COP-15 in Copenhagen, December 2009. In 2005, the worldwide per capita consumption of fish captured from wild fisheries was 14.4 kilograms, with an additional 7.4 kilograms harvested from fish farms.FAO: Fisheries and Aquaculture

Prehistory

Evidence of mollusc eating at Pinnacle Point has been estimated to date back to between 160,800 and 163,200 BC.

Fishing dates back at least to the Upper Paleolithic period which began about 40,000 years ago.African Bone Tools Dispute Key Idea About Human Evolution National Geographic News article.Early humans followed the coast BBC News article. Isotopic analysis of the skeletal remains of Tianyuan man, a 40,000-year-old modern human from eastern Asia, has shown that he regularly consumed freshwater fish.Yaowu Hu Y, Hong Shang H, Haowen Tong H, Olaf Nehlich O, Wu Liu W, Zhao C, Yu J, Wang C, Trinkaus E and Richards M (2009) "Stable isotope dietary analysis of the Tianyuan 1 early modern human" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (27) 10971-10974.First direct evidence of substantial fish consumption by early modern humans in China PhysOrg.com, 6 July 2009. Archaeological features such as shell middens,Coastal Shell Middens and Agricultural Origasims in Atlantic Europe. discarded fish bones, and cave paintings show that sea foods were important for survival and consumed in significant quantities. During this period, most people lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and were constantly on the move out of necessity. However, where there are early examples of permanent settlements (not necessarily continually occupied) like those at Lepenski Vir, they are almost always associated with fishing as a major source of food.

Spearfishing with barbed poles (harpoons) was widespread in palaeolithic times.Guthrie, Dale Guthrie (2005) The Nature of Paleolithic Art. Page 298. University of Chicago Press. Cosquer cave in Southern France contains cave art over 16,000 years old, including drawings of seals which appear to have been harpooned.

The Neolithic culture and technology spread worldwide between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago. With the new technologies of farming and pottery came basic forms of the main fishing methods that are still used today.

From 7500 to 3000 years ago, Native Americans of the California coast were known to engage in fishing with gorge hook and line tackle.King 1991, pp. 80-81. In addition, some tribes are known to have used plant toxins to induce torpor in stream fish to enable their capture.Rostlund 1952, pp. 188-190

Copper harpoons were known to the seafaring HarappansRay 2003, page 93 well into antiquity.Allchin 1975, page 106 Early hunters in India include the Mincopie people, aboriginal inhabitants of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, who have used harpoons with long cords for fishing since early times.Edgerton 2003, page 74

Early history

In ancient history, the Nile was full of fish; fresh and dried fish were a staple food for much of the population.. The Egyptians invented various implements and methods for fishing and these are clearly illustrated in tomb scenes, drawings, and papyrus documents. Simple reed boats served for fishing. Woven nets, weir baskets made from willow branches, harpoons and hook and line (the hooks having a length of between eight millimetres and eighteen centimetres) were all used. By the 12th dynasty, metal hooks with barbs were being used. As is fairly common today, the fish were clubbed to death after capture. Nile perch, catfish and eels were among the most important fish. Some representations hint at fishing being pursued as a pastime.

There are numerous references to fishing in ancient literature; in most cases, however, the descriptions of nets and fishing-gear do not go into detail, and the equipment is described in general terms. An early example from the Bible in Job 41:7: Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?

Unlike in Minoan culture,The Minoan Culture, historywiz.com Accessed 2015-12-28 fishing scenes are rarely represented in ancient Greek culture, a reflection of the low social status of fishing. There is a wine cup, dating from c. 500 BC, that shows a boy crouched on a rock with a fishing-rod in his right hand and a basket in his left. In the water below there is a rounded object of the same material with an opening on the top. This has been identified as a fish-cage used for keeping live fish, or as a fish-trap. It is clearly not a net. This object is currently in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.Image of an ancient angler on a wine cup.

Oppian of Corycus, a Greek author wrote a major treatise on sea fishing, the Halieulica or Halieutika, composed between 177 and 180. This is the earliest such work to have survived intact to the modern day. Oppian describes various means of fishing including the use of nets cast from boats, scoop nets held open by a hoop, spears and tridents, and various traps "which work while their masters sleep". Oppian describes a method of catching fish with a net:

The fishers set up very light nets of buoyant flax and wheel in a circle round about while they violently strike the surface of the sea with their oars and make a din with sweeping blow of poles. At the flashing of the swift oars and the noise the fish bound in terror and rush into the bosom of the net which stands at rest, thinking it to be a shelter: foolish fishes which, frightened by a noise, enter the gates of doom. Then the fishers on either side hasten with the ropes to draw the net ashore.

The Greek historian Polybius (ca 203 BC–120 BC), in his Histories, describes hunting for swordfish by using a harpoon with a barbed and detachable head.Polybius, "Fishing for Swordfish", Histories Book 34.3 (Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, translator). London, New York: Macmillan, 1889. Reprint Bloomington, 1962.

Pictorial evidence of Roman fishing comes from mosaics which show fishing from boats with rod and line as well as nets. Various species such as conger, lobster, sea urchin, octopus and cuttlefish are illustrated.Image of fishing illustrated in a Roman mosaic . In a parody of fishing, a type of gladiator called retiarius was armed with a trident and a casting-net. He would fight against the murmillo, who carried a short sword and a helmet with the image of a fish on the front.

The Greco-Roman sea god Neptune is depicted as wielding a fishing trident.

In India, the Pandyas, a classical Dravidian Tamil kingdom, were known for the pearl fishery as early as the 1st century BC. Their seaport Tuticorin was known for deep sea pearl fishing. The paravas, a Tamil caste centred in Tuticorin, developed a rich community because of their pearl trade, navigation knowledge and fisheries.

In Norse mythology the sea giantess Rán uses a fishing net to trap lost sailors.

The Moche people of ancient Peru depicted fisherman in their ceramics.Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.

From ancient representations and literature it is clear that fishing boats were typically small, lacking a mast or sail, and were only used close to the shore.

In traditional Chinese history, history begins with three semi-mystical and legendary individuals who taught the Chinese the arts of civilization around 2800–2600 BC: of these Fuxi was reputed to be the inventor of writing, hunting, trapping, and fishing.

Gillnet

Gillnets existed in ancient times as archaeological evidence from the Middle East demonstrates.Nun, Mendel (1989). The Sea of Galilee and Its Fishermen in the New Testament, pp. 28-44. Kibbutz Ein Gev, Kinnereth Sailing Co. In North America, aboriginal fishermen used cedar canoes and natural fibre nets, e.g., made with nettels or the inner bark of cedar.Stewart, Hilary (1994). Indian Fishing: Early Methods on the Northwest Coast. Seattle, University of Washington Press. They would attach stones to the bottom of the nets as weights, and pieces of wood to the top, to use as floats. This allowed the net to suspend straight up and down in the water. Each net would be suspended either from shore or between two boats. Native fishers in the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Alaska still commonly use gillnets in their fisheries for salmon and steelhead.

Both drift gillnets and setnets also have been widely adapted in cultures around the world. The antiquity of gillnet technology is documented by a number of sources from many countries and cultures. Japanese records trace fisheries exploitation, including gillnetting, for over 3,000 years. Many relevant details are available concerning the Edo period (1603–1867).Ruddle, Kenneth and Akimich, Tomoya. "Sea Tenure in Japan and the Southwestern Ryukyus," in Cordell, John, Ed. (1989), A Sea of Small Boats, pp. 337-370. Cambridge, Mass., Cultural Survival, Inc. Fisheries in the Shetland Islands, which were settled by Norsemen during the Viking era, share cultural and technological similarities with Norwegian fisheries, including gillnet fisheries for herring.Goodlad, C.A. (1970). Shetland Fishing Saga, pp. 59-60. The Shetland Times, Ltd. Many of the Norwegian immigrant fishermen who came to fish in the great Columbia River salmon fishery during the second half of the 19th century did so because they had experience in the gillnet fishery for cod in the waters surrounding the Lofoten Islands of northern Norway.Martin, Irene (1994). Legacy and Testament: The Story of the Columbia River Gillnetter, p. 38. Pullman, Washington State University Press. Gillnets were used as part of the seasonal round by Swedish fishermen as well.Lofgen, Ovar. "Marine Ecotypes in Preindustrial Sweden: A Comparative Discussion of Swedish Peasant Fishermen," in Andersen, Raoul, ed., North Atlantic Maritime Cultures, pp. 83-109. The Hague, Mouton. Welsh and English fishermen gillnetted for Atlantic salmon in the rivers of Wales and England in coracles, using hand-made nets, for at least several centuries.Jenkins, J. Geraint (1974). Nets and Coracles, p. 68. London, David and Charles. These are but a few of the examples of historic gillnet fisheries around the world. Nowadays Gillnets are not used in modern fisheries due to the new regulations and laws put on the commercial fishing industry. The Gillnets would not only kill targeted fish but also harm other unintended inhabitants of the surrounding area, also known as bycatch.

Cod trade

One of the world's longest lasting trade histories is the trade of dry cod from the Lofoten area to the southern parts of Europe, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The trade in cod started during the Viking period or before, has been going on for more than 1000 years and is still important.