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Colton Laws
Adam Padgett
English 1200
April 14th, 2015
Technology Demolishing The Right Way of Hunting and Fishing
Sometimes there just comes a time when too much, is too much! With technology
interacting with hunting and fishing, this time came about 50 years ago. Americas 34
million hunters and anglers are an economic powerhouse, driving the economy (1
Malley). Not only are the populations of animals and fish being affected by technological
inventions, but they are also affecting the fishermans lifestyle as well. How often do you
see a grandfather taking his grandson on a fishing trip and teaching him that fishing isnt
just about catching fish, its about the enjoyment of the outdoors? Hunting and fishing
have tremendously been affected by the new technological inventions.
In 1948, a device for detecting fish underwater was developed in Nagasaki, Japan
by the Furuno brothers named Kiyotaka and Kiyokata (1 Furuno). This device was called
the Fish Finder because it sends out radioactive waves to the bottom of the lake/ocean
and detects when something blocks the radioactive waves from reaching the bottom. This
device also determines the depth of the water you are fishing by measuring each piece of
the wave by footage. To many people today, fish finders are known as a way of cheating.
In certain fishing tournaments, you cannot use fish finders because they want the
contestants to fish places where they believe the fish are, not where a little mechanical
device tells them where they are. The invention of the fish finder was the materialization
of an engineering primitive seed - a boy's dream of "how wonderful if I could see

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underwater (1 Furuno). This was a love-hate accomplishment that made the Fruno
brothers millions, but also destroyed the old timers hot fishing spots, which are now
bombarded with high tech fisherman looking at a small square device trying to watch
every move the fish make. Whats next, a fishing rod that reels the fish in for you?
Even back during the Paleolithic time period, the living creatures in the water
were considered a way of getting a good nutrition meat that was not hard to catch (1
Faragher). Many of them would simply scoop them up with homemade nets made of
vines. A Chinese written account from around the fourth century B.C. describes a bamboo
rod, with a silk line, a needle used as a hook, and rice as bait (1 Secrest). Over time, this
method of bamboo fishing has superiorly improved to better, stronger rods and has now
just about gone extinct. During the middle of the seventeenth century, the fishing rod was
greatly improved by adding a wire loop or ring at the tip. This allowed the line to be let
out and pulled in easily (3 Secrest). Rods today are made by a carbon fiber material that
lets certain rods do a complete O shape before snapping in half. This new creation
hardly gives the fish any hope at all of freedom once hooked in the lip (Fragaher). These
rods, along with many other inventions, take away the fun in fishing. If a fisherman
hooks anything besides a fish under 50lbs, there is no fight in whose going to win the
battle. The fish will be drug up out of its bedding area before it has time to get a sip of
water. Even with these advantages to the fisherman, people still wonder why the fish
population is decreasing in freshwater areas. In United States, Americans spend an
average of $208 million a day just on fishing accessories while North Carolina spends
$1.5 billion a year (2 Malley). These numbers are through the roof compared to what they
used to be. Texas, the largest state of the US, has a number of 2.6 million anglers and

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hunters throughout the entire state (2 Malley). Although Texas has the most fisherman
and hunters, there rules and regulations are a little different than others so they are not the
state in which consumes the most fish or animals.
Killing a deer, turkey, bear, or any other large game used to be a huge
accomplishment to a consistent hunter. Thats why it is called Hunting not killing.
Terry L. Jones writes Truth is, back in the old days, if you even got a squirrel it was
considered a good day. When I killed my first one, I was so excited I left the woods and
ran home to show it off. Now days, with the new Browning 12 gauge shotgun, killing 20
squirrels with it isnt anything to show off because everyone does it. They usually dont
even eat the squirrels but give them to their hunting dogs as chew toys. Hunting
expectations have risen through the roof over the past years. I happen to have an uncle
who is a Game warden and chief over 12 counties, John Campbell. He says that the
amount of duck hunters have greatly increased due to hot show called Duck Dynasty.
John says he remembers pulling to the Wildlife Boat Ramp and seeing two boats arrive
on opening day of duck season when he first became a warden. Now he goes and sees no
opening spots for other boats to come use it. Everyone wants to be like celebrity rednecks
Willie and Phil Robertson, who created the duck call and have thousands of acres to their
family. Not everyone can own thousands of acres to hunt because there isnt enough land.
People have become greedy and are not happy with just a successful hunt. They want the
biggest and best animals out there. So they get the latest technological systems that they
think will help them out on their hunt.
Today, many hunters spend all their time overlooking a food plot or corn feeder
because their lease restricts them to one or two stands. When I started hunting, there were

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no leases in North Louisiana. Private land owners didnt even post their property, and no
one thought anything of walking behind a neighbors house to hunt.-Terry L. Jones.
Now days, if you walk behind a neighbors house hunting for a deer to shoot, youre liable
to be the one who gets shot. Things have just changed since then, for the worse.
Technology has created so many different options for people that when they become
happy with one aspect; they soon want another to fulfill their wants rather than focusing
and enjoying the first one they received. For example, a hunter walks into the woods
looking for a nice deer to shoot. He gets a glance at a nice buck he really would like to
shoot, but cannot get a shot. The next step most hunters today would take is put a deer
camera up! Deer cameras work by capturing any motion with a sensor and triggering the
camera to take a picture of whatever is in front of it. Over the last 20 years, probably no
other piece of technology has changed the way we deer hunt more than the trail-camera.
Deer hunters love their trail-cameras, and advancing technology has resulted in models
that are smaller, higher in resolution, with longer battery life than ever before (1 Bell).
Hunters cannot just be happy with the fact they saw a nice buck. They want more insight
on its lifestyle. Wheres it bedding, whats it eating, how many does are with it, hunters
seem to find no limit of insight to know about a deer. There expectations are to high
because of the advantages they have by using new technology inventions.
If these inventions are not enough to prove that technology has given the hunters
an unfair advantage, then this will definitely prove the point. The latest technology
controversy within the hunting community has centered on our newfound fascination with
drones. Originally developed for military applications, drones have gotten smaller and
much more affordable for the average person. In fact, for a few hundred bucks you can

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get your own drone, slap a point-of-view (POV) camera on it, and you are ready for some
aerial scouting.-Daniel Bell. A drone is a little remote control airplane that has a camera
on it. While in the air, the camera sends back a signal to the controller receiver showing a
digital video picture of what the airplane is flying over. These are often used for mountain
hunting in Colorado and Montana. The hunting guides will fly these drones over big
mountain to see if there is any game on the other side rather then walking around or over
the mountain. Surprisingly, no the drone will not kill the animal for you, so you do have
to walk over the mountain if there is game over there. But this gives the hunter more
insight than was ever needed.
It has been said that the only thing constant in life is change, and with technology
rapidly advancing, we are sure to continue to see more changes in the way we hunt and in
most cases, it will be up to each of us individually to decide how far is too far when it
comes to hunting technology (3 Bell). So how far is to far? Was it yesterday, last year, or
even 5 years ago? To far was when hunters wanted to start harassing deer with deer
cameras. To far is when fishermen wanted to see under water. To far is when hunters
needed an extra set of eyes in the sky (drone). There comes a time when hunters and
fishermen have reached the point of maximum technology equipment that can be used.
That time was a long time ago. With all the new technology inventions, hunters and
fishermen have more insight on what they are looking for than they ever will need.

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Works Cited
Secrest, Rose. (copyright 2015). Fishing Rod. Volume 5. How products are made and
History behind them. Web.25 February 2015. Retrieved from
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-5/Fishing-Rod.html
Furuno, Company. (Copyright 2013). All about Fish Finders. Topic 1-18. Invention of
Fish Finder. Web. 25 Feburary 2015. Retrieved from
http://www.furuno.com/special/en/fishfinder/index.html.
Hunting and fishing.by T Faragher. Australian veterinary journal, Peer reviewed. Article:
English. 2003 Mar; 81(3): 127
Malley, O. Patrick. (Copyright 2006). Hunting and Fishing:Bright Starts of American
Colony. Web. 25 Feburary 2015. Retrieved from
http://www.nssf.org/PDF/research/bright%20stars%20of%20the%20economy.pdf
Jones, L. Terry. (Copyright 1999) Looking Back-Hunting has changed over the past few
Decades. Web. 25 Feburary 2015. Retrieved from
http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=4696
Bell. Daniel. (copyright 2012). How far is to far? Web. 25 Feburary 2015. Retrieved from
http://www.qdma.com/articles/hunting-technology-how-far-is-too-far