Sustainable Fishing Practices
Introducing the art of Trolling, from it’s earliest days of existence, to the now most sustainable Tuna fishery in the world. Target: Albacore Tuna.
Troll fishing, or Trolling for fish, is simply towing an artificial bait, known as a lure or jig, behind a boat, with a hook, at the end of the line, to catch the fish.
This type of fishing is moving threw the water as to lure the fish into biting the hook. This Hook and Line method of fishing is one of many variations of gear types using a hook, but is the only one that is conducted while a boat is moving, or underway.
At the present time, Troll fishing is most commonly used in the recreational fisheries to catch large game fish such as tuna, marlin, swordfish, and other fishes caught for sport.
Each fisherman (angler) places his pole (rod) in a fixed position on the boat until a fish is caught. Once a fish is hooked, all other lines are reeled in, as not to tangle with the fish, and the captain of the boat will maneuver the vessel to help with the catch.
The Troll method is used commercially for catching Salmon and Albacore Tuna on the open Ocean. Instead of using the conventional rod, or pole, commonly used by anglers, commercial fishing boats are rigged with two large 20-40 foot poles that have multiple lines hanging from them.
Once positioned on each side of the vessel in a 45% angle pointing out away from the boat, these “outriggers”, or “downriggers” give each fishing line a spread from one another keeping them from tangling with each other. It is common, for a commercial trolling vessel, to drag 6-12 lines threw the water all at one time.
History of Trolling with a “Fish Hook”:
The art of Trolling could be as old as man himself. In 2011, while digging in the Jerimalai cave of East Timor, Professor Sue O'Connor from the Australian National University in Canberra and a team of scientists uncovered over 38,000 fish bones from 2,843 fish - dating back 42,000 years.
The biggest discovery was the unearthing of a fish hook made from a shell, which is between 16,000 and 23,000 years old.
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