Point of departure

On any working day in many coastal Third World countries, big, busy trawlers may be observed on their way to deep- sea fishing grounds, as they pass a fleet of small wooden crafts, being ignored by the patiently rowing fishermen aboard. Faced with this striking contrast between high- and low- productive methods of fishing, most observers infer that modern times are coming; the days of picturesque fishing methods are counted. The basis of the inference that traditional fisheries are dying is – of course – the historical experience of fisheries’ industries of developed nations over the past century. What can be learned from history is, however, limited, and what can be learned by studying patterns formed by production equipment dispersed on the surface of the sea is even less. The above snapshot provides us with information on the situation today. The investigation of diffusion of technologies in a few Asian fishing villages has taught me that the past may be as hidden as the future.

Sitting in a Colombo café in 1980, reading a Sri Lankan newspaper article treating the ‘Catamaran's dramatic come- back’, my curiosity on retrogression processes was roused and my investigation started. The catamaran, which according to Norwegian standards is (wrongly) considered a primitive craft, was said to experience a renaissance on the north- western coast of the island: