Fishing is the activity of catching fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering spearing netting angling and trapping. The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as mollusks cephalopods crustaceans and echinoderms. The term is not normally applied to catching aquatic mammals such as whales where the term whaling is more appropriate or to farmed fish. In addition to providing food modern fishing is also a recreational sport. According to FAO statistics the total number of fishermen and fish farmers is estimated to be 38 million. Fisheries and aqua culture provide direct and indirect employment to over 500 million people. In 2005 the worldwide per capita consumption of fish captured from wild fisheries was 14.4 kilograms with an additional 7.4 kilograms harvested from fish farms. |