a huge net made of nylon mesh measuring between 1.25 and 90 miles in length and 8 and 15 feet in depth that is left to "drift" in the ocean for periods of eight hours or more.
A large gillnet ranging in length up to 40 miles, a driftnet is suspended vertically with floats and allowed to drift freely in the open ocean. The United Nations has banned the use of driftnets in international waters because of their non-selective catch characteristics. Driftnets in U.S. waters are limited to 1.5 miles in length. See gillnet below.
A gillnet suspended by floats so that it fishes the top few metres of the water column. Also called a pelagic gillnet.
a huge net stretching across many miles that drifts in the water; used primarily for large-scale commercial fishing.
