section_path: Techniques
section_name: Techniques
paragraph_text: Techniques
  
  There are many fishing techniques and tactics for catching fish. The term can also be applied to methods for catching other aquatic animals such as molluscs (shellfish, squid, octopus) and edible marine invertebrates.
  
  Fishing techniques include hand gathering, spearfishing, netting, angling, bowfishing and trapping, as well as less common techniques such as gaffing, snagging, clubbing and the use of specially trained animals such as cormorants and otters. There are also destructive fishing techniques (such as electrocution, blasting and poisoning) that can do irreversible damage to the local ecosystems by killing/ sterilizing entire fish stocks, habitat destruction and/or upsetting the equilibrium of interspecific competitions, and such practices are often deemed illegal and liable to criminal punishments.
  
  Recreational, commercial and artisanal fishers use different techniques, and also, sometimes, the same techniques. Recreational fishers fish for pleasure, sport, or to provide food for themselves, while commercial fishers fish for profit. Artisanal fishers use traditional, low-tech methods, for survival in third-world countries, and as a cultural heritage in other countries. Usually, recreational fishers use angling methods and commercial fishers use netting methods. A modern development is to fish with the assistance of a drone.
  
  Why a fish bites a baited hook or lure involves several factors related to the sensory physiology, behaviour, feeding ecology, and biology of the fish as well as the environment and characteristics of the bait/hook/lure. There is an intricate link between various fishing techniques and knowledge about the fish and their behaviour including migration, foraging and habitat. The effective use of fishing techniques often depends on this additional knowledge. Some fishers follow fishing folklores which claim that fish feeding patterns are influenced by the position of the sun and the moon.