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

(sub-tech) 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

(sub-tech) 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 +1 food to settlement and +1 health.

References: salt-water/freshwater fish, boatbuilding.