''For the fishing industry and the practice of fishing, see fishing.

A fishery is an area with an associated fish or aquatic population which is harvested for its value (commercial, recreational, subsistence). It can be saltwater or freshwater, wild or farmed. Examples are the salmon fishery of Alaska, the cod fishery off the Lofoten islands or the tuna fishery of the Eastern Pacific.

Most fisheries are marine, rather than freshwater; 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, but more typically occur inland, in lakes, ponds, tanks and other enclosures.

The term "fish"

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. These days true fish are sometimes referred to as finfish or fin fish to distinguish them from other aquatic life harvested in fisheries or aquaculture.

Species fisheries

There are 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 as well are harvested in smaller numbers.

See also

• Aquatic ecosystem
• Fish farming
• Fisheries management
• Fisheries science
• Wild fisheries
• Ocean fisheries
• Population dynamics of fisheries
• Sea Fish Industry Authority

References

External links

• FAO Fisheries Department and its SOFIA report
• The Fishery Resources Monitoring System (FIRMS)
• The International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET)
• Dynamic Changes in Marine Ecosystems: Fishing, Food Webs, and Future Options (2006), U.S. National Academy of Sciences
• UNEP/GEF South China Sea Project and its Fisheries Refugia Portal and National Reports on Fish Stocks and Habitats in the South China Sea