Harpoon

File:Harpons de Fontalés MHNT.PRE.2011.0.654.jpg

Harpoon heads from between 15000 and 12000 BP

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Inuit hunter with harpoon in kayak, Hudson Bay, circa 1908-1914

A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It does this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal. A harpoon can also be used as a weapon.

Typically, a harpoon for fishing has backwards-pointing barbs which stop the fish getting free.

Harpoon Media

• Harpon Unaaq MHNT ETH AC 198.jpg

  Unaaq ᐅᓈᖅcode: iu is deprecated , a harpoon used by Inuit, 172 cm (68 in; 5.64 ft) long, MHNT

• Harpon 2010.0.3.5. Global.JPG

  Epipaleolithic Azilian Le Mas-d'Azil, Ariège, France

• Manner in which the natives of the East Coast Stirke Turtle.jpg

  "Manner in which Natives of the East Coast strike turtle." Near Cooktown, Australia. From Phillip Parker King's Survey. 1818.

• Whaling Harpoons 1887.jpg

  Harpoons used in the whale fishery, 1887, including new design from Provincetown whalemen

• Harpoon mounted on a whaling boat, Alaska, ca 1915 (COBB 76).jpeg

  Harpoon mounted on a whaling boat in Alaska, c. 1915

• Whaling harpoon.jpg

  Whaling harpoon