Fishing (technology)

Fishing is one of the first technologies a region develops, using skills and tools to catch fish as food.

This page discusses the techniques, skills, methods and processes associated with fishing, distinguished by the development level at which that type of fishing is available. These are then further subdivided into sub-technologies, tools, culture, blocks, improvements and references. Sub-technologies appear below as headings.

Development 4

Hand-gathering

The harvesting of sea foods without tools, such as picking up shellfish or kelp, digging for clams or crabs, flounder tramping, noodling, pearl diving, trout binning and [tickling].

Blocks: natural beach, wild coastline and shore, sea cliffs, coral reefs, atolls, lagoons, headlands, grottos, rivers, lakes.

Development 5

Catch Fishing

Also known as artisanal fishing, the employment of primitive styles of fishing using short (rarely overnight) fishing trips close to home. The catch is not processed but is instead eaten. The amount caught usually meets the subsistence needs of the community.

Tools: spears with heads made of bone, wood or stone; fishing nets; bone hooks; gaffs and fishing lines made of gut or woven fibre.

Boats consist of lightly built narrow craft for one to three persons, made of natural materials and lacking the strength to survive a storm in deep water. Caulking is done with natural materials.

Culture

Communication: allows contact and agreements with settlements along sea shores, across small bays or upon lakes and rivers.

Superstition: produces an irrational fear of storms; storm gods are the primary deity.

Blocks

Water village: small settlement constructed on a tidal mud flat, freshwater pond or marshland, with houses on pillars or jetties, allowing direct access to boats tied to each house. The village is often reachable only by boat.

Protected Beach: with fishing boats that are pulled high upon the beach to protect them from storms, with boats light enough to be carried; the settlement is located behind the beach in trees or among protective rocks.

Improvements

Fishing Grounds: exploration has located a sea, lake or river location of unusually rich fishing waters. This is indicated by a pre-existing trade reference indicating fish or boatbuilding. May be exploited by up to two T(1-6) settlements. Adds +2 food total (to single settlement or divided) and +1 health. Includes salmon runs.

References: salt-water/freshwater fish, boatbuilding.

Development 6

Aquaculture

The farming of fish and shellfish in ponds, river estuaries and enclosed bays. Fish stocks are selected for size. Includes cultivation of ornamental fish. Extensive farms exist in subterranean cultures.

Tools: shellfish traps

Blocks

Stock Pond: tailored water sources using an aquifer or dam to maintain water level. Caretakers protect from poachers. Stock ponds are usually private, owned by a village or status-individual.

References: caviar (+2 happiness), fish fins (+1 happiness), shellfish, sturgeon

Bowfishing

Use of barbed arrows with line enabling the drawn in by hand or using a reel. Best employed in freshwater sources where the water is clear.

Outward Fishing

Tools

Karvi: primitive longboat capable of supporting up to 35 passengers, used in fishing, trade and occasionally for war parties. Not equipped with sails at this level of development.

Umiak: open skin boat used for extensive fishing trips outwards into semi-deep water (20-40 miles from shore), often used for hunting small whales or walrus.

Culture: a strong emotional relationship exists between fishers and the sea, lakes or rivers; sea chantys are common and mythological stories abound.

Blocks

Boat Yard: an area where boats are assembled and repaired; features tailored areas, dug channels, piers, embankments and roofed shacks. Usually a natural harbour but not always. Adds +1 labor. Requires a minimum T(5) settlement. Replaces protected beach.

Improvements

Semi-deep waters: boatbuilding reference adds +1 bonus to food production from extensive semi-deep water.

References: sealskin (+1 happiness)

Development 7

Angling

The method of fishing by using an "angle" (fish hook) attached to a fishing line that can be hurled outwards through the use of a rod. Light objects are used as "flies". Boats employ the use of longlining or trolling.

Tools: corf, fish hook, float

Culture: pleasure fishing becomes a contemplative, philosophical pastime.

Trap Fishing

The use of bronze metal fishtraps and chain (later, other metals and lacquered wood) for lowering a frame to the sea or river bottom to catch large shellfish and other bottom feeders.

References: eels, octopus

Development 8

Deep Sea Fishing

The widespread use of sailing vessels enables long fishing journeys, supported by larger fishing boats able to store food for weeks at a time. Commercial fishing for profit and trade is an extensive activity, pursuing fish far into the ocean under adverse conditions. Lack of a compass denies ocean-crossing. Simple fish-processing takes place.

Tools: drift nets, gillnets

Drifter: single-masted sailing vessel with animal skins or woven fabrics for sails. Fishing involves pulling a drift net.

Culture: spread of news from abroad, rush of people to the waterfront with the return of ships followed by a feast and celebration.

Blocks

Dock: a group of structures for the handling of boats, including a solidly built stone-timbered pier with two to three storage structures and a small accounting office. Requires a minimum T(3) settlement.

References: cod-liver oil, dried fish

Higher Development

• corporate fishing (compass)
• lift nets (engineering)
• ocean crossing (compass)
• fish processing (?)
• wharf/harbour (compass)