Fishery

history

in southern Alaska.]]

Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising and/or harvesting fish, which is determined by some authority to be a fishery.Fletcher, WJ; Chesson, J; Fisher, M; Sainsbury KJ; Hundloe, T; Smith, ADM and Whitworth, B (2002) »The "How To" guide for wild capture fisheries. National ESD reporting framework for Australian fisheries: FRDC Project 2000/145. Page 119–120. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats, purpose of the activities or a combination of the foregoing features". In particular, the term is often applied to a combination of fish and fishers in a region, the latter fishing for similar species with similar gear types.Madden, CJ and Grossman, DH (2004) »A Framework for a Coastal/Marine Ecological Classification Standard. NatureServe, page 86. Prepared for NOAA under Contract EA-133C-03-SE-0275

A fishery may involve the capture of wild fish or raising fish through fish farming or aquaculture.FAO: »Fisheries glossaryNOAA: »Fisheries glossary p. 24. Directly or indirectly, the livelihood of over 500 million people in developing countries depends on fisheries and aquaculture.»Fisheries and Aquaculture in our Changing Climate Policy brief of the FAO for the UNFCCC COP-15 in Copenhagen, December 2009.

The term "fish"

  • In biology – the term fish is most strictly used to describe any animal with a backbone that has gills throughout life and has limbs, if any, in the shape of fins. Many types of aquatic animals commonly referred to as fish are not fish in this strict sense; examples include shellfish, cuttlefish, starfish, crayfish and jellyfish. In earlier times, even biologists did not make a distinction - sixteenth century natural historians classified also seals, whales, amphibians, crocodiles, even hippopotamuses, as well as a host of aquatic invertebrates, as fish.Jr.Cleveland P Hickman, Larry S. Roberts, Allan L. Larson: Integrated Principles of Zoology, McGraw-Hill Publishing Co, 2001, ISBN 0–07–290961–7

  • In fisheries – the term fish is used as a collective term, and includes mollusks, crustaceans and any aquatic animal which is harvested. The strict biological definition of a fish, above, is sometimes called a true fish. True fish are also referred to as finfish or fin fish to distinguish them from other aquatic life harvested in fisheries or aquaculture.

Types of fisheries

Fisheries are harvested for their value (commercial, recreational or subsistence). They can be saltwater or freshwater, wild or farmed. Examples are the salmon fishery of Alaska, the cod fishery off the Lofoten islands, the tuna fishery of the Eastern Pacific, or the shrimp farm fisheries in China. Capture fisheries can be broadly classified as industrial scale, small-scale or artisanal, and recreational.

Close to 90% of the world’s fishery catches come from oceans and seas, as opposed to inland waters. These marine catches have remained relatively stable since the mid-nineties (between 80 and 86 million tonnes). Most marine fisheries are based near the coast. This is not only because harvesting from relatively shallow waters is easier than in the open ocean, but also because fish are much more abundant near the coastal shelf, due to coastal upwelling and the abundance of nutrients available there. However, productive wild fisheries also exist in open oceans, particularly by seamounts, and inland in lakes and rivers.

Most fisheries are wild fisheries, but increasingly fisheries are farmed. Farming can occur in coastal areas, such as with oyster farms,New Zealand Seafood Industry Council. »Mussel Farming. but more typically occur inland, in lakes, ponds, tanks and other enclosures.

There are species fisheries worldwide for finfish, mollusks and crustaceans, and by extension, aquatic plants such as kelp. However, a very small number of species support the majority of the world’s fisheries. Some of these species are herring, cod, anchovy, tuna, flounder, mullet, squid, shrimp, salmon, crab, lobster, oyster and scallops. All except these last four provided a worldwide catch of well over a million tonnes in 1999, with herring and sardines together providing a harvest of over 22 million metric tons in 1999. Many other species are harvested in smaller numbers.

See also

Notes

References

  • FAO: »Types of fisheries
  • Hart PJB and Reynolds JD (2002) [http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=RSCTL9iq9_sC&pg=PA285&lpg=PA285&dq=%22vulnerable++fish%22&source=bl&ots=X2QnRc1nvC&sig=px7CQvvAPCDKNb7jgmP4SFCh6Kg&hl=en&ei=izkaSpX6NciOkAXAitT4DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=20#PPA285,M1 Handbook of fish biology and fisheries] Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9780632054121

External links

home | This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. See full license termsIt uses material from the Wikipedia article "fishery ". | compliance | March 20th 2010