Fishing_industry

Commercial fishermen in Alaska, early 20th century

The fishing industry is the commercial activity aimed at delivery of fish and other seafood products for human consumption or as input factors in other industrial processes. According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics the total fish production in the world in 2001 was 130 million tonnes. In addition to the commercial catches, 37.9 million tonnes were produced in aquaculture plants.^{[citation needed]}

Commercial fishing provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often pursue fish far into the ocean under adverse conditions. Commercial fishermen harvest almost all aquatic species, from tuna, cod and salmon to shrimp, krill, lobster, clams, squid and crab, in various fisheries for these species. Commercial fishing methods have become very efficient using large nets and sea-going processing factories. Many new restrictions are often integrated with varieties of fishing allocation schemes (such as individual fishing quotas), and international treaties that have sought to limit the fishing effort and, sometimes, capture efficiency.

Fishing methods vary according to the region, the species being fished for, and the technology available to the fishermen. A commercial fishing enterprise may vary from one man with a small boat with hand-casting nets or a few pot traps, to a huge fleet of trawlers processing tons of fish every day.

Commercial fishing gears today are surrounding nets (e.g. purse seine), seine nets (e.g. beach seine), trawls (e.g. bottom trawl), dredges, hooks and lines (e.g. long line and handline), lift nets, gillnets, entangling nets and traps.

In addition to the above, commercial fishing can also be thought of as encompassing "pay to fish" enterprises, which provide anglers with controlled access to stocked lakes, ponds or canals. These provide fishing opportunities outside of the permitted seasons and quotas applied to public waters. In the United Kingdom, commercial fisheries of this sort charge access fees, with prices ranging from £2 to £25 per day. In North America, establishments usually charge for the fish caught, by length or by weight, rather than for access to the site although some establishments charge both types of fees. Prices for fish caught in North American "pay to fish" waters are generally in the range of $0.10 to $0.20 per cm or from $5.00 to $10.00 per kg.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, total world capture fisheries production in 2000 was 86 million tons (FAO 2002). The top producing countries were, in order, the People\'s Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan), Peru, Japan, the United States, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, India, Thailand, Norway and Iceland. Those countries accounted for more than half of the world\'s production; China alone accounted for a third of the world\'s production. Of that production, over 90% was marine and less than 10% was inland.

In the 1990s and 2000s it has become increasingly evident that industrial fishing has severely depleted stocks of certain types of ocean fish, such as cod.^{[citation needed]} One fishing industry sector that appears to remain in a good state of production is the freshwater fishing sector in Canada.^{[citation needed]}

The fishing industry comprises the following chain:

• Commercial fishing (fisheries)
• Fish processing
• Fish products sales

Fishing industry in Canada

The Manitoba commercial fishing industry is comprises over 3,600 fisherpersons who produce 25 percent of Canada\'s freshwater catch. Lake Winnipeg is the biggest contributor of commercially landed fish species. Of the 13 fish species commercially harvested, pickerel (walleye), Sauger, lake whitefish, northern pike, yellow perch and lake trout are the most highly valued species. Others include white sucker, tullibee, carp, burbot, lake sturgeon, Goldeye and white bass.

See also

• Clam digging
• Commercial fishing in Alaska
• Environmental effects of fishing
• Fish farming
• Fishery
• Fishing
• Lobster fishing
• Trawling

External links

• FAO Fisheries Information
• Fish database (FishBase)
• American Fisheries Society
• NOAA Fisheries Service
• One Fish

This economics or finance-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia