Fish Guide

Salmon for sale at a fish market.

The fishing industry is the commercial activity of fishing and producing 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.

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. For more information, see overfishing.

One fishing industry sector that appears to remain in a good state of production is the freshwater fishing sector in Canada. The Manitoba commercial fishing industry is comprised of 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

• Ichthyology (the study of fish)

External links

• Freshwater Commercial Fishing on Lakes
• FAO Fisheries Information
• Fish database (FishBase)
• Alaska Commercial Fishing News
• American Fisheries Society
• One Fish
• NOAA Fisheries Service