Oil painting of gillnetting, The salmon fisher, by Eilif PeterssenNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration illustration of a gillnet
Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is generally referred to as a "cork line." The line along the bottom of the panels is generally weighted. Traditionally this line has been weighted with lead and may be referred to as "lead line." A gillnet is normally set in a straight line. Gillnets can be characterized by mesh size, as well as colour and type of filament from which they are made. Fish may be caught by gillnets in three ways:
Wedged – held by the mesh around the body.
Gilled – held by mesh slipping behind the opercula.
Tangled – held by teeth, spines, maxillaries, or other protrusions without the body penetrating the mesh.
Most fish have gills. A fish swims into a net and passes only part way through the mesh. When it struggles to free itself, the twine slips behind the gill cover and prevents escape.[1]
Gillnets are so effective that their use is closely monitored and regulated by fisheries management and enforcement agencies. Mesh size, twine strength, as well as net length and depth are all closely regulated to reduce bycatch of non-target species. Gillnets have a high degree of size selectivity. Most salmon fisheries in particular have an extremely low incidence of catching non-target species.[2]
Contemporary Canadian commercial salmon bowpicker on trailer. Gillnet is evident on the metal drum in the bow of the boat.
A fishing vessel rigged to fish by gillnetting is a gillnetter. A gillnetter which deploys its gillnet from the bow is a bowpicker, while one which deploys its gillnet from the stern is a sternpicker. Gillnets differ from seines in that the latter uses a tighter weave to trap fish in an enclosed space, rather than directly catching the fish as in a gillnet.
^Murphy, B.; Willis, D. (1996). Fisheries Techniques (2nd ed.). Bethesda, MD: American Fisheries Society. Archived from the original on 2013-02-21.
^Selective Fisheries (PDF) (Report). Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line...
because they are commercially valuable species usually caught by trawl and gillnetting fleets. Concern is expressed over the sustainability of monkfish fishing...
nets by commercial fisheries and accidentally swallow fishing hooks. Gillnetting and Seine netting is a significant cause of mortality in seals and other...
Flying fish are commercially fished in Japan, Vietnam, and China by gillnetting, and in Indonesia and India by dipnetting. Often in Japanese cuisine...
porpoises, mainly the vaquita, are subject to great mortality due to gillnetting. Although it is the world's most endangered marine cetacean, the vaquita...
England. European fishermen gillnetted for Atlantic salmon in rivers using hand-made nets for many centuries and gillnetting was also used in early colonial...
commercial fisheries as bycatch and accidentally swallow fishing hooks. Gillnetting and Seine netting is a significant cause of mortality in whales and other...
commercial fisheries as bycatch and accidentally swallow fishing hooks. Gillnetting and Seine netting are significant causes of mortality in cetaceans and...
shark was considered a "munk fish". It was a byproduct of commercial gillnetting, with no commercial appeal and was used only for crab bait. In 1977,...
shark specimen stems from an area of intensive artisanal fishing, mainly gillnetting, but also line and electrofishing. Habitat degradation may pose a further...
by-catch that includes: -establishing core conservation areas where gillnetting is banned or severely restricted -promoting net attendance rules and...
moderately turbid. Sampling of skipjack has been performed through the use of gillnetting and electro fishing. These methods are best utilized beneath impoundments...
Guise of 'Treaty Rights:' The Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, Steelhead, and Gillnetting". Public Land and Resources Law Review. 29. Archived from the original...
decades as the porpoise population has declined, and have concluded that gillnetting is unlikely to be the primary cause of their decline. Increased traffic...
bycaught in the North Atlantic each year by either tuna drift, trawling and gillnetting. The regulation is that only cetacean bycatch can not be longer than...
commercial importance, and is caught by various methods ranging from gillnetting to dynamite fishing. Pla thu (Thai: ปลาทู; RTGS: pla thu), known as the...
can have their wheelhouse either aft or forward. In coastal waters, gillnetting is often used as a second fishing method by trawlers or beam trawlers...
justice", "Journal of Environmental Law", 2010 Potter, E.C.E., and Pawson, "Gillnetting (Laboratory Leaflet Number 69)", "Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries...
have been prohibited in False Bay. Demersal trawling, purse seining and gillnetting were introduced in the 19th century, but have been stopped as they were...
also victims of bycatch. Bycatch happens most commonly with the use of gillnetting, longlines, or bottom trawling. Longlines with bait hook attachments...
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