Understanding Economic Activities — Primary, Secondary, Tertiary

Fish caught in the North Sea and fish caught off the coast of Senegal are the same natural resource, a living resource taken from the sea. The way people catch and land them could hardly be more different. That contrast is a useful starting point for studying economic activity.

In the North Sea photo, workers on a large industrial vessel use cranes to lift stacks of red and yellow crates full of fish onto pallets. The catch is handled in bulk, and machines do the heavy lifting. In the Senegal photo, a long wooden boat sits in the shallow surf and a crowd of people carry the catch ashore by hand.

• Industrial fishing in the North Sea depends on equipment such as large boats, cranes and standard containers. Relatively few workers handle a very large catch.
• Artisanal fishing in Senegal depends on people. The boat is simple, many people share the work, and each person can only move what they can carry.

Both are primary activities, because both take a raw material straight from the sea. Each technique has trade-offs. The industrial method can land huge quantities quickly but needs expensive vessels and machinery. The artisanal method needs little equipment and involves many workers, but the amount landed is limited by human effort.