ABSTRACT
Drift nets are stationary nets designed to capture drifting organisms, i.e., those transported via water current. For the purposes of this chapter, drift is understood as the transport itself, in which along-current movement of an organism is maintained by the current alone and not at the expense of the fi sh’s energy reserves. This will be independent of whether (1) it results from passive dislodgement and ends with passive deposition (Pavlov 1994), or (2) plays a part in an active migration strategy (Hare et al. 2005). It is worth noting that the term ‘drift nets’ is also used for coastal gill nets, where the nets themselves drift with the current (FAO 2013). Drifting gill nets work on a substantially different principle and this chapter deals only with stationary drift nets.
