Deep Sea Fishing with Gill Net: A Study among the Fishermen of Digha, West Bengal

Abstract

Indigenous methods and techniques of marine and inland fishing found among different ethnic groups living in varied geographical locations have been the subject matters of anthropological studies for a long time. However, most of these studies primarily viewed fishing as a family centric economy of subsistence level with pre-industrial indigenous technology. But in the recent past, fishing has become a large scale commercial activity based on post-industrial tools and techniques that operates beyond the domain of familybased subsistence and reflects a complex social relation of production. These activities are centred around the aquaculture on the one hand and marine fishing on the other. In all the cases, technology and social organisation of production vary according to the location of aquaculture or fishing as well as the nature of aquatic animals. Thus we find that in case of marine fishing, there are variations in the type of vessel, net, social organisation and others, and these variations are again related with financial capital, targeted variety of aquatic animal and others. In the above background, the present paper aims to highlight the technological aspects of deep sea fishing with the help of gill net and mechanised vessels adopted by the fishermen operating from Digha fishing harbour of West Bengal, India. The technological aspects considered in this paper have not only included tools and material culture but also resources, tasks, skills, labours and activities associated with such fishing as various authors have considered all these elements as attributes of technology.