Jun,16 2022
latest news Article cited from：Text: Zeng Tinghan (Specialist of Success Marine Environment Classroom)
The origin of a ghost knife: longline fishing
Longline fishing is the most common fishing method of the ghost head knife. Longline fishing is mainly composed of a main line (main line) that is hundreds of meters to several kilometers long, hundreds of branch lines attached to the main stick every few meters, and the end of the line is tied with a hook that can be hung on. bait, and a buoy and weight on the dry line to control the depth of the entire stick. Taking the ghost head knife as an example, its fishing range is mainly on the surface of the sea, so it uses "floating sticks" to work.
The fishing method is that the volunteers take the bait. After the captains carefully select the suitable fishing ground, they will put a dry rope with a length of five kilometers and a hook with bait into the sea, and wait for the catch to be hooked. The target fish species of the floating stick are usually Ghost head knife, tuna, swordfish are mainly used. According to the size of the target fish, the size of the hook and the thickness of the stem and support ropes also need to be different.
If you have the opportunity to walk in fishing villages and towns, you can see baskets of longline fishing gear by the fishing port or in front of people's homes. , the hooks are neatly arranged one by one on the edge of the drum. Before going out to sea, the fishermen will take out the fishing gear and tidy it up. Since there may be breaks or knots during the last sea operation, the first step is to straighten out the knots in the fishing ropes and check whether there is any The rusted and broken hooks, after eliminating these hooks, re-tie new hooks, firmly stuck in the grooves on the side of the barrel, and then put the fishing ropes into the barrel in order. This is the "clean stick" among fishermen.
In addition to fishing gear, the other most important element of longline fishing is the bait. The bait for longline fishing mostly uses frozen squid, saury, mackerel, etc., but the ghost knife prefers live bait, so sometimes milkfish are used as live bait, but a live bait costs 12 yuan, and it has to be Raised in a living cabin, the cost is much higher. The average longline fisherman still chooses frozen bait, and some people insert several live baits into the general frozen bait, hoping to increase the probability of the ghost knife being hooked.
Send the stick! The longline operation process is revealed
After everything was ready, the captains had to leave the port at two o'clock in the morning the next day, ready to get to the fishing ground to occupy a seat. Because the range of the longline fishing line is more than five kilometers, in order to avoid collusion and entanglement with the fishing line between other fishing boats, and the drifting range of the current and waves, the distance between the boat and the boat must be more than seven kilometers. During the peak season of Guitou Dao, fishermen have to queue up earlier in order to grab the best fishing grounds with good flowing water. During the waiting time, in addition to getting all the tools ready, you will also hear the conversation on the ship's radio confirming the working range with each other, ready to "drop the stick".
Step 1：drop stick
From 3:00 to 4:00 in the morning, the fisherman starts to hook (drop the stick), and firstly, he will put the net position meter (bird cub) tied to the end of the fishing rope, and start the work of lowering the hook. The experienced captain will move slowly and slowly, and the crew will bait the hook on the support line at the stern at the same time and throw it into the sea. The crew must pay full attention during the operation. If there is a flash, not only the fishing line may be entangled. Knotted, out-of-control hooks can also cut through the skin and injure yourself. After placing all the hooks, finally put down the net level meter at the end of the main rope to complete the hooking! Usually, an average boat puts three to five barrels. It takes about 20 minutes to work on each barrel. It must be finished at dawn, because the captain said that this is the time for the ghost knife to forage, so the fishermen must be in the fish. Get ready before you wake up.
The next step is to wait patiently. The whole set of floating sticks drifts with the current on the sea surface. The boat only needs to follow the fishing line. The captain uses the monitor in the cabin to watch the position reported by the net level meter. From the far sea, you can see a long dry rope. On the dry rope is a floating ball with a flag attached to it. It is connected to other floating balls that are floating and sinking on the sea. Quietly waiting for the ghost-head knife to be hooked on the sea. . If you have the opportunity to pass by Huadong Beach in the early hours of the season when the ghost head knife is abundant, you can see the scenery of fishing fire in the morning light.
Step 2：stick
After waiting for a period of time, the crew is ready to start retracting the hook. This action is commonly known as "lifting the stick". When the hook is lifted, the boat's rope lifter is used to wind up the main line with mechanical power, while the crew handles the support line.
When there is no catch, the crew will remove the bait that has not been eaten and then throw it back into the sea; if encountering a hooked ghost knife, the crew will first stop the rope lifter and pull the fishing line to the side of the boat with bare hands (from the taut fishing line). You can feel the amazing power of the ghost-headed knife), and then use the long hook to pull the ghost-headed knife to the deck. At this time, the ghost-headed knife is still struggling, and the crew must quickly suppress it. If faced with a large ghost-headed knife, they even need to hit the head. The fish will die quickly, the meat quality will also reduce the painful time, and finally the catch will be properly stored in the refrigerator on the boat to keep ice.
Volunteers take the bait, a sustainable traditional fishing method
If you are lucky, you can always catch dozens of hooks per barrel, but when the sea conditions are bad, you may not even have a ghost knife. In recent years, the catch has become less and less, and the size of the ghost knife caught is smaller than before. After a trip to the sea, whether the income from the sale of the catch can balance the cost of oil, bait and personnel has always been a headache for fishermen. Longline fishing is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the cost increases year by year, which makes people wonder why the fishermen insist on putting sticks? The old captain only replied with a simple sentence: "Because it is more friendly to the marine environment."
The fishing efficiency of the net fishing method is relatively high, especially the offshore gillnet, so that the large and small fish that pass by cannot escape, and even the sea turtles, cetaceans and other non-target fish species passing by will drown due to the middle net. Talking about the method of fishing with nets, the captain's face became much heavier, and he couldn't help sighing: "How can there be fish in the future?"
Longline fishing is a fishing hook, which is caught by the fish actively biting the bait. Compared with the net gear that the fish gets stuck when passing by, it is more selective for the captured marine life, even if there is still a possibility that sharks or other fish will be hooked. , but the main target fish species are hooked. In addition, longline fishing boats will completely recycle their fishing gear after dropping and lifting, reducing the chance of discarded fishing nets becoming a wall of death in the sea.
High cost and low harvest test the sustainability of friendly fishing methods
More than a decade ago, Taiwan's sea seekers lacked young people to join, and instead hired Chinese fishermen. At that time, Chinese fishermen would still go back to their hometowns for holidays during the Lunar New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival. The fishing season had an obvious off-peak season, and the ocean also had time to rest. However, after the introduction of fishermen from Southeast Asia in recent years, boat owners have to pay the salaries of foreign fishermen for twelve months a year. With higher pressure on labor costs, fishing boats must go out to sea all year round.
"I go out to sea every day, only in typhoon days, I can't go out to sea, I just need to catch some salary for foreign workers!" The captain described the changes in fishing activities in recent years, which has made marine resources less and less, and there is no time to recover and respite. .
But will there be income from fishing at sea? Counting the cost of longline fishing out to sea, a box of squid bait is nearly 1,800 yuan, and three boxes of squid bait are nearly 6,000 yuan at a time. In addition, the cost of oil, ice, and labor for a trip to the sea exceeds tens of thousands of yuan. The high cost and low harvest of the fish are testing the fishing method that is friendly to the marine environment.
Local initiative initiated by industry, government and academia to take the first step in sustainable fishery
In recent years, Chenggong Xingang Fishery Association has independently initiated the "Fishery Improvement Project" (FIP) for the ghost knives in the Xingang area, inviting fishermen, processing plants and traders to form a FIP working group for ghost knives, and commissioned the ROC's foreign fishery The Cooperative Development Association assisted with the project, and invited Wang Shengping, a professor at Taiwan Ocean University, to participate in the scientific research of the Guitou Dao population as a scientific basis for the promotion of the fishery improvement plan. This is the first step towards the sustainable utilization of fishery.
However, the actual visit to the local fishermen, although the overall price of ghost fishing has become more stable because of the FIP. But for the fishermen who participate in the FIP management scheme, there is no direct benefit from the sale of the catch. When fishermen select their catches, the price is still based on freshness, and there is no special consideration to whether the captains have followed the FIP management method. If fishermen who abide by the law and love the sea are to continue to support a good fishery system, they must be more active in protecting their rights and interests.
Longline fishing is the most common fishing method of the ghost head knife. Longline fishing is mainly composed of a main line (main line) that is hundreds of meters to several kilometers long, hundreds of branch lines attached to the main stick every few meters, and the end of the line is tied with a hook that can be hung on. bait, and a buoy and weight on the dry line to control the depth of the entire stick. Taking the ghost head knife as an example, its fishing range is mainly on the surface of the sea, so it uses "floating sticks" to work.
The fishing method is that the volunteers take the bait. After the captains carefully select the suitable fishing ground, they will put a dry rope with a length of five kilometers and a hook with bait into the sea, and wait for the catch to be hooked. The target fish species of the floating stick are usually Ghost head knife, tuna, swordfish are mainly used. According to the size of the target fish, the size of the hook and the thickness of the stem and support ropes also need to be different.
If you have the opportunity to walk in fishing villages and towns, you can see baskets of longline fishing gear by the fishing port or in front of people's homes. , the hooks are neatly arranged one by one on the edge of the drum. Before going out to sea, the fishermen will take out the fishing gear and tidy it up. Since there may be breaks or knots during the last sea operation, the first step is to straighten out the knots in the fishing ropes and check whether there is any The rusted and broken hooks, after eliminating these hooks, re-tie new hooks, firmly stuck in the grooves on the side of the barrel, and then put the fishing ropes into the barrel in order. This is the "clean stick" among fishermen.
In addition to fishing gear, the other most important element of longline fishing is the bait. The bait for longline fishing mostly uses frozen squid, saury, mackerel, etc., but the ghost knife prefers live bait, so sometimes milkfish are used as live bait, but a live bait costs 12 yuan, and it has to be Raised in a living cabin, the cost is much higher. The average longline fisherman still chooses frozen bait, and some people insert several live baits into the general frozen bait, hoping to increase the probability of the ghost knife being hooked.
Send the stick! The longline operation process is revealed
After everything was ready, the captains had to leave the port at two o'clock in the morning the next day, ready to get to the fishing ground to occupy a seat. Because the range of the longline fishing line is more than five kilometers, in order to avoid collusion and entanglement with the fishing line between other fishing boats, and the drifting range of the current and waves, the distance between the boat and the boat must be more than seven kilometers. During the peak season of Guitou Dao, fishermen have to queue up earlier in order to grab the best fishing grounds with good flowing water. During the waiting time, in addition to getting all the tools ready, you will also hear the conversation on the ship's radio confirming the working range with each other, ready to "drop the stick".
Step 1：drop stick
From 3:00 to 4:00 in the morning, the fisherman starts to hook (drop the stick), and firstly, he will put the net position meter (bird cub) tied to the end of the fishing rope, and start the work of lowering the hook. The experienced captain will move slowly and slowly, and the crew will bait the hook on the support line at the stern at the same time and throw it into the sea. The crew must pay full attention during the operation. If there is a flash, not only the fishing line may be entangled. Knotted, out-of-control hooks can also cut through the skin and injure yourself. After placing all the hooks, finally put down the net level meter at the end of the main rope to complete the hooking! Usually, an average boat puts three to five barrels. It takes about 20 minutes to work on each barrel. It must be finished at dawn, because the captain said that this is the time for the ghost knife to forage, so the fishermen must be in the fish. Get ready before you wake up.
The next step is to wait patiently. The whole set of floating sticks drifts with the current on the sea surface. The boat only needs to follow the fishing line. The captain uses the monitor in the cabin to watch the position reported by the net level meter. From the far sea, you can see a long dry rope. On the dry rope is a floating ball with a flag attached to it. It is connected to other floating balls that are floating and sinking on the sea. Quietly waiting for the ghost-head knife to be hooked on the sea. . If you have the opportunity to pass by Huadong Beach in the early hours of the season when the ghost head knife is abundant, you can see the scenery of fishing fire in the morning light.
Step 2：stick
After waiting for a period of time, the crew is ready to start retracting the hook. This action is commonly known as "lifting the stick". When the hook is lifted, the boat's rope lifter is used to wind up the main line with mechanical power, while the crew handles the support line.
When there is no catch, the crew will remove the bait that has not been eaten and then throw it back into the sea; if encountering a hooked ghost knife, the crew will first stop the rope lifter and pull the fishing line to the side of the boat with bare hands (from the taut fishing line). You can feel the amazing power of the ghost-headed knife), and then use the long hook to pull the ghost-headed knife to the deck. At this time, the ghost-headed knife is still struggling, and the crew must quickly suppress it. If faced with a large ghost-headed knife, they even need to hit the head. The fish will die quickly, the meat quality will also reduce the painful time, and finally the catch will be properly stored in the refrigerator on the boat to keep ice.
Volunteers take the bait, a sustainable traditional fishing method
If you are lucky, you can always catch dozens of hooks per barrel, but when the sea conditions are bad, you may not even have a ghost knife. In recent years, the catch has become less and less, and the size of the ghost knife caught is smaller than before. After a trip to the sea, whether the income from the sale of the catch can balance the cost of oil, bait and personnel has always been a headache for fishermen. Longline fishing is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the cost increases year by year, which makes people wonder why the fishermen insist on putting sticks? The old captain only replied with a simple sentence: "Because it is more friendly to the marine environment."
The fishing efficiency of the net fishing method is relatively high, especially the offshore gillnet, so that the large and small fish that pass by cannot escape, and even the sea turtles, cetaceans and other non-target fish species passing by will drown due to the middle net. Talking about the method of fishing with nets, the captain's face became much heavier, and he couldn't help sighing: "How can there be fish in the future?"
Longline fishing is a fishing hook, which is caught by the fish actively biting the bait. Compared with the net gear that the fish gets stuck when passing by, it is more selective for the captured marine life, even if there is still a possibility that sharks or other fish will be hooked. , but the main target fish species are hooked. In addition, longline fishing boats will completely recycle their fishing gear after dropping and lifting, reducing the chance of discarded fishing nets becoming a wall of death in the sea.
High cost and low harvest test the sustainability of friendly fishing methods
More than a decade ago, Taiwan's sea seekers lacked young people to join, and instead hired Chinese fishermen. At that time, Chinese fishermen would still go back to their hometowns for holidays during the Lunar New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival. The fishing season had an obvious off-peak season, and the ocean also had time to rest. However, after the introduction of fishermen from Southeast Asia in recent years, boat owners have to pay the salaries of foreign fishermen for twelve months a year. With higher pressure on labor costs, fishing boats must go out to sea all year round.
"I go out to sea every day, only in typhoon days, I can't go out to sea, I just need to catch some salary for foreign workers!" The captain described the changes in fishing activities in recent years, which has made marine resources less and less, and there is no time to recover and respite. .
But will there be income from fishing at sea? Counting the cost of longline fishing out to sea, a box of squid bait is nearly 1,800 yuan, and three boxes of squid bait are nearly 6,000 yuan at a time. In addition, the cost of oil, ice, and labor for a trip to the sea exceeds tens of thousands of yuan. The high cost and low harvest of the fish are testing the fishing method that is friendly to the marine environment.
Local initiative initiated by industry, government and academia to take the first step in sustainable fishery
In recent years, Chenggong Xingang Fishery Association has independently initiated the "Fishery Improvement Project" (FIP) for the ghost knives in the Xingang area, inviting fishermen, processing plants and traders to form a FIP working group for ghost knives, and commissioned the ROC's foreign fishery The Cooperative Development Association assisted with the project, and invited Wang Shengping, a professor at Taiwan Ocean University, to participate in the scientific research of the Guitou Dao population as a scientific basis for the promotion of the fishery improvement plan. This is the first step towards the sustainable utilization of fishery.
However, the actual visit to the local fishermen, although the overall price of ghost fishing has become more stable because of the FIP. But for the fishermen who participate in the FIP management scheme, there is no direct benefit from the sale of the catch. When fishermen select their catches, the price is still based on freshness, and there is no special consideration to whether the captains have followed the FIP management method. If fishermen who abide by the law and love the sea are to continue to support a good fishery system, they must be more active in protecting their rights and interests.