Seine Nets 9

Seine nets are the dominant net used to harvest fish in the oxbows. Again, the “eye” or mesh size of the net is controlled by the Punjabi government, but allow the oxbows to be harvested through a series of sweeps across the entire body of water. These would be dragged along the bottom of the oxbow lake and then pulled onshore to harvest the large amount of fish. Most of the nets that I observed were straight, although some of the older nets (no longer functional – too many holes to repair!) had pockets in the bottom portion that was dragged along the bottom of the oxbow and fish would have been caught within these pockets.