On 14 Jul 2006 21:39:57 -0700, tschnautz wrote:
I'm wondering what all kind of factors can cause these differences
between countries and locales.

What a great question. Aside from what you've already mentioned, I
think "tradition" has a lot to do with it.
In the late 70's early 80's when Vietnamese imigrants were new to our
area (MS Gulf Coast), We were totally amazed to see them rig their
shrimp boats with poles, the size of telephone poles, sticking out the
bow of their boats and pushing their shrimp nets ahead of them instead
of dragging behind like the local shrimpers had always done. I guess
that must be the way it's done in Vietnam. For awhile, it appeared the
locals were being out shrimped!
They've (Vietnamese) mostly been assimilated into Americana by now
though and I haven't seen a boat rigged with bow nets in several
years.

Rick