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The Men always drew part of their food from the sea. They started by fishing edge of a sea, of a water court. Then they manufactured simple drafts to move away from the edge and to have more catches. The nets were invented and the boats became increasingly large.

Until the 19th century, one sinned only the fish. Then hunting came to the Cetacea for their body was the raw material of many products. From their white were extracted cetyl alcohol, their pennons were used to build umbrellas.

XXe century, the techniques made it possible to fish much more. Indeed, the sonar made it possible to quickly find the giant fish and freezers to preserve it. These changes upset the ecosystem. The fish reserves world have decreased dangerously. But of the agreements were signed and of the fish species " species in the process of disappearance were classified " what made it possible to prohibit their fishing to safeguard these species.

The techniques currently most used are: fishing " with the drag " (trawlers drawing eighteen lines equipped with lures), fishing " with the cane with alive soft food " (after appâtage, the lines are launched by the fishermen), fishing " with the seine " (long square thread of 1 500 m out of 100 m, whose lower edge can be closed again by pleating on a sliding cable; deployed by an appendix to encircle a tuna bench, it allows, in one hour, to capture jusqu’à 300 T of tunas), fishing " with the trawl " (net in the shape of pocket).

The Men fish more and more to meet the needs for a population increasingly larger (fished world tonnage passed from 19 million in 1948 to nearly 97 million in 1991). The countries which fish more are: China, the ex the USSR and Japan. Certain zones are overexploited like the Northern Atlantic and others under-exploited like the Indian Ocean. Species and fishing zones are still not exploited.

There is however an alternative to safeguard the animal population: aquiculture, culture of fish out of basins directly on water. This form of fishing is used today only on some species but this technique will spread for it makes it possible to follow the fluctuations of the request what is impossible with traditional fishing.