A descriptive analysis of cognitive activities involved in locating fishing points: In the case of fishermen of Toyoshima Island, Hiroshima Prefecture

Abstract

This study aimed at descriptive understanding of traditional methods involved in locating fishing points and navigating to them in the sea, and investigate associated cognitive activities. Participant observations and interviews were conducted for more than 30 fishermen who employed hand-line or long-line fishing methods near Toyoshima Island, Hiroshima Prefecture. The main findings were: (1) Fishermen readily perceived environmental cues when locating fishing points, which enabled them to navigate to a correct point on the sea. (2) Their memory of fishing points was not verbal, but visual, directly tied to the cue perception, and was constantly renewed during fishing activities. (3) They grasped configurations of various natural conditions (e.g., swiftness of the tide, surface structure of the sea bottom) through tactile information from the fishing tine, and comprehended their surroundings with accumulated knowledge and inductive inferences. And (4) their cognitive processes of perception, memory, and understanding were functionally coordinated in the series of fishing work.