fishing industry includes any industry or activity that takes, cultures, processes, preserves, stores, transports, markets or sells fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including recreational, Artisan fishing and commercial fishing, as well as the related harvesting, Fish processing, and Fish marketing sectors.[FAO Fisheries Section: Glossary: Fishing industry. Retrieved 28 May 2008.] The commercial activity is aimed at the delivery of fish and other seafood products for human consumption or as input factors in other industrial processes. The livelihood of over 500 million people in developing countries depends directly or indirectly on Fishery and aquaculture.[ Fisheries and Aquaculture in our Changing Climate Policy brief of the FAO for the UNFCCC COP-15 in Copenhagen, December 2009.]
The fishing industry is struggling with environmental and welfare issues, including overfishing and occupational safety.
Sectors
The industry has three principal sectors that include recreational,
Artisan fishing, and commercial fishing.
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The commercial sector comprises enterprises and individuals associated with wild-catch or aquaculture resources and the various transformations of those resources into products for sale. It is also referred to as the seafood industry, although non-food items such as pearls are included among its products.
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The traditional sector comprises enterprises and individuals associated with fisheries resources from which aboriginal people derive products in accordance with their traditions.
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The recreational sector comprises enterprises and individuals associated for the purpose of recreation, sport or sustenance with fisheries resources from which products are derived that are not for sale.
File:Albatun Dod.jpg|Modern Spanish tuna purse seiner in the Seychelles Islands
File:Tsukiji fish market thuna knife.jpg|Using a special tuna knife at Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo
File:Wash fish market.jpg|Fresh seafood laid out on one of several floating barge vendors at the Maine Avenue Fish Market in Washington D.C.
Commercial sector
World production
File:Contribution of fish to animal protein supply, average 2013-2015.svg|Contribution of fish to animal protein supply, average 2013–2015
Fish are harvested by commercial fishing and aquaculture. Stocks fished within biologically sustainable levels decreased from 90% in 1974 to 62.3% in 2021.
The world harvest increased over the 20th century and, by 1986, had stabilized around per year.[A Mood and P Brooke (July 2010). Estimating the Number of Fish Caught in Global Fishing Each Year. FishCount.org.uk.]
Following is a table of the 2011 world fishing industry harvest in (metric tons) by capture and by aquaculture.
|
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| Total | 94,574,113 | 83,729,313 | 178,303,426 |
| Aquatic plant | 1,085,143 | 20,975,361 | 22,060,504 |
| Aquatic animal | 93,488,970 | 62,753,952 | 156,202,922 |
File:World capture fisheries and aquaculture production by species group, from World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2021.svg|By species group
File:World capture fisheries and aquaculture production by production mode, from World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2021.svg|By production mode
Related industries
Once fish is caught, especially in commercial sectors, bringing the fish to consumers require a complex series of related industries.
Fish processing
Fish processing is the processing of fish delivered by commercial fisheries and fish farms. The larger fish processing companies have their own fishing fleets and independent fisheries. The products of the industry are usually sold
wholesale to
or to intermediaries.
Fish processing can be subdivided into two categories: fish handling (the initial processing of raw fish) and fish products manufacturing. Aspects of fish processing occur on , fish processing vessels, and at fish processing plants.
Another natural subdivision is into primary processing involved in the filleting and freezing of fresh fish for onward distribution to fresh fish retail and catering outlets, and the secondary processing that produces chilled, frozen and canned products for the retail and catering trades.
Fish products
Fisheries are estimated to currently provide 16% of the world population's
protein. The flesh of many fish are primarily valued as a source of food; there are many edible species of fish. Other marine life taken as food includes
shellfish,
crustaceans, sea cucumber,
jellyfish and
roe.
Fish and other marine life can also be used for many other uses: and Nacre, and Rajiformes. , star fish, and Holothuroidea are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Tyrian purple is a pigment made from marine snails, and sepia is a pigment made from the inky secretions of cuttlefish. Animal glue has long been valued for its use in all manner of products. Isinglass is used for the clarification of wine and beer. Fish emulsion is a fertilizer emulsion that is produced from the fluid remains of fish processed for fish oil and fish meal.
Fish derived protein have been identified to exhibit a wide range of bioactivities making them important to food and health care industries.
In the industry, the term seafood products is often used instead of fish products.
Fish marketing
are
marketplace used for the
trade in and sale of fish and other
seafood. They can be dedicated to
wholesale trade between
fishermen and fish
, or to the sale of seafood to individual
, or to both. Retail fish markets, a type of
wet market, often sell
street food as well.
Most shrimp are sold frozen and are Shrimp marketing in different categories.[
]
The live food fish trade is a global system that links fishing communities with markets.
Environmental impact
Sustainable fishery
International disputes
The ocean covers 71% of the earth's surface and 80% of the value of exploited
marine resources are attributed to the fishing industry. The fishing industry has provoked various international disputes as wild fish capture rose to a peak about the end of the 20th century, and has since started a gradual decline.
[ Millennium Ecosystem Assessment] Iceland, Japan, and Portugal are the greatest consumers of
seafood per capita in the world.
Disputes in the Americas
Chile and
Peru are countries with high
fish consumption, and therefore had troubles regarding their fish industries. In 1947, Chile and Peru first adopted the 200
nautical mile standard as their exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and in 1982, the UN formally adopted this term. In the 2000s, Chile and Peru suffered a serious fish crisis because of excessive fishing and lack of proper regulations, and now .
From the late 1950s, offshore bottom trawlers began exploiting the deeper part, leading to a large catch increase and a strong decline in the underlying biomass. The stock collapsed to extremely low levels in the early 1990s and this is a well-known example of non-excludable, non-rivalrous public good in economics, causing
free-rider problems.
Following the collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery in 1992, a dispute arose between Canada and the European Union over the right to fish Greenland halibut (also known as turbot) just outside of Canada's exclusive economic zone in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. The dispute became known as the Turbot War.
Disputes in Europe
Iceland is one of the largest consumers in the world and in 1972, a dispute occurred between UK and Iceland because of Iceland's announcement of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to reduce overfishing. This dispute is called the
Cod Wars, direct confrontations between Icelandic patrol vessels and British warships.
Nowadays in Europe in general, countries are searching for a way to recover their fishing industries. Overfishing of European Union fisheries is costing 3.2 billion euros a year and 100,000 jobs according to a report. So Europe is constantly looking for some collective actions that could be taken to prevent overfishing.
Disputes in Asia
Japan,
China and
Korea are some of the greatest consumers of fish, and have some disputes over Exclusive Economic Zone.
[Urbina, Ian. " The deadly secret of China's invisible armada". www.nbcnews.com. NBC News. Retrieved 11 August 2020]
In 2011, due to a serious earthquake, the nuclear power facility in Fukushima was damaged. A huge amount of contaminated water leaked and entered the ocean. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) admitted that around 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank on the site. In the
Kuroshio Current, the sea near Fukushima, about 11 countries catch fish. Not only the surrounding countries such as Japan, Korea and China, but also the countries like
Ukraine,
Spain and
Russia have boats in the Kuroshio Current. In September 2013,
South Korea banned all fish imports from eight Japanese prefectures, due to the radioactive water leaks from the Fukushima nuclear plant.
The North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission: NPFC was established in 2015 to manage fish stocks against increasing demand.
Members are Canada, Japan, Russia, the United States, and South Korea. China, Taiwan, and Vanuatu also participated in the meeting.
The NPFC imposes catch limits on member countries and countries participating in the conference. A crackdown on Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) vendors was also requested.
Society and culture
Global goals
International policy to attempt to address these issues is captured in Sustainable Development Goal 14 ("Life below water") and its Target 14.4 on "Sustainable fishing":
[United Nations (2017) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ( A/RES/71/313)] "By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end
overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics".
Standards and labelling
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an independent non-profit organization which sets a standard for sustainable fishing. Fisheries that wish to demonstrate they are well-managed and sustainable compared to the MSC's standards are assessed by a team of experts or
Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) who are independent of both the fishery and the MSC.
By country
See also
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Fishery
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Fishing industry by country
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Fishing industry in the Caribbean
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List of countries by fish and seafood consumption
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Sustainable fishing
External links
