Fishing Industry

DUAL ECONOMIC STRUCTURE

COMMON PROPERTY ISSUES

REGULATION OF THE FISHING INDUSTRY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The modern fishing industry, with fleets of large capital-intensive vessels, can be traced back to the introduction of the trawler early in the twentieth century. Those ships enabled fishers to reach distant fishing grounds more quickly, stay out fishing longer, and catch more fish per trip. Subsequent growth in the number, size, and technological sophistication of trawlers steadily increased harvesting capacity and corresponding pressures on fish stocks. The introduction of “factory” trawlers in the early 1960s allowed even longer and more distant fishing trips and intensified fishing pressure on previously neglected fish stocks.

A little over 130 million metric tons of fish was harvested worldwide in 2003, almost 80 percent of which was for human consumption (United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization 2004). Reversing earlier trends, the output from ocean harvesting remained fairly constant in the early years of the twenty-first century, accounting for almost 60 percent of consumption. Around 7 percent of the harvest comes from inland waters, and the rest comes from aquaculture, most of which is conducted in fresh waters.

Developing countries provide around 70 percent of the total world supply of fish for human consumption, much of which is harvested using traditional small-scale and labor-intensive technologies. The top countries in 2002 were China, Peru, the United States, Indonesia, and Japan in that order, with China harvesting over twice the amount taken by Peru. One-third of global ocean harvesting occurs in the northwestern Pacific, roughly 20 percent in the southeastern Pacific, 16 percent in the northeastern Atlantic, and 15 percent in the western central Pacific. The major ocean stocks, which are harvested largely by factory fleets, are anchovies (a relatively low-value product), pollock, tuna, herring, and mackerel.

In contrast to the marine fishery, aquaculture production grew at an average annual rate of 6 percent per year after 2000, with China accounting for almost 70 percent of world aquaculture production in 2002, followed by India, Indonesia, Japan, and Bangladesh. The most important aquaculture species is carp, followed by various types of higher-value shellfish, such as oysters and clams.

Trade in fisheries products grew 45 percent from 1992 to 2002, and the value of fisheries exports reached $58.2 billion in 2002. Around 90 percent of this trade involves processed (frozen, salted, dried, and canned) fish products. China is the major exporter of fish, followed closely by Thailand and then the United States, Canada, Denmark, and Vietnam. Developed countries purchase over 80 percent of the total dollar value of traded fish products, with Japan accounting for 22 percent of world imports in 2002, followed by the United States (16%), Spain (6%), and France (5%).

DUAL ECONOMIC STRUCTURE

Although it is difficult to generalize about the structure of the fishing industry worldwide, the large-vessel fleet is aging and there has been a decline in the number of very large vessels being added to fleets (United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization 2004). Large factory vessels and distant-water fleets account for the majority of the harvest, but around 90 percent of all fishers, most of whom are in Asia, work on small vessels (International Labour Organization 2004). Although much of the small-scale fishing sector uses traditional technologies that limit harvesting to heavily fished near-shore waters, there is a growing group of small to midsize vessels with advanced technologies that can access more abundant offshore stocks that can be brought to market quickly enough to command premium prices for fresh fish.

COMMON PROPERTY ISSUES

The fishing industry represents a classic example of the common property problem. Unlike land-based agriculture, ocean fish stocks are a resource for which individuals traditionally do not hold property rights. There is a substantial literature documenting how, in the absence of ownership or regulation of fishing stocks, economic incentives motivate the owners of individual vessels to overfish the resource by harvesting as many fish as possible as quickly as possible (Anderson 1986).

Technological changes that have made harvesting more efficient, coupled with the growth of large-scale fleets and international fish markets, made this common property problem a global concern beginning in the midtwentieth century. As fisheries stocks become depleted, the scarcity of fish drives up prices, and harvesting incentives become even stronger, threatening the sustainability of the resource. As a result, many of the world’s fish stocks have been classified as having been fished beyond sustainable levels and concerns are being raised about the possible extinction of overfished species.

One response to depleted stocks has been to shift fishing efforts to previously underutilized species. However, experience has shown that those species soon become threatened and that the shifting species mix can have adverse effects on the ecosystem. A second outcome has been the rapid growth of aquaculture, much of which is conducted in areas where property rights can be established, but that has added to the growing concern about environmental pollution in marine and inland waters and its impact on the safety of fish products for human consumption.

REGULATION OF THE FISHING INDUSTRY

Economists have argued that regulation is the only longterm method to achieve the biological, economic, and environmental sustainability of the fishing industry. They also have advocated a form of regulation that relies heavily on markets and property rights to counter common property problems. In practice, however, fisheries regulation has relied on indirect methods to reduce incentives for overfishing.

Initially, the most widely adopted policy was to reduce the access of large-scale foreign fishing fleets to continental fishing stocks to conserve the stocks for domestic fishers. Many coastal nations imposed limits on distant-water fleets in the 1970s by establishing Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) that extended territorial control over ocean resources up to 200 miles from their coastlines. The result in many cases, however, was that domestic fleets with increasingly sophisticated harvesting technologies took the place of foreign fishing vessels, and so the pressures on fish stocks continued to increase.

Thus, the focus of national regulatory policies shifted to fishing pressures within EEZs. The most common policy instruments have involved indirectly limiting harvesting activity through seasonal or permanent closures of fishing grounds, reducing fleet size by limiting entry and offering vessel buyouts, and raising the costs of fishing by constraining harvesting technologies, for example, limiting vessel size and power, increasing the minimum mesh size of nets, and reducing the number of days of fishing allowed. Those policies, however, often have proved costly to monitor and easy to evade, allowing overfishing to continue.

As a consequence, pressures have increased to restrict harvesting further. In the United States the 1996 and 2006 reauthorizations of federal fisheries management legislation were designed to force regulators to set allowable harvesting levels lower than the previous levels. The new levels are below what would be needed to ensure biological sustainability to take into account both the environmental and the economic costs of harvesting fish.

Although most management regulations continue to rely largely on indirect regulation of fishing effort, there has been increasing international interest in individual transferable quotas, one of the policies most often advocated by economists. The individual transferable quota policy involves allocating shares (quotas) of the allowable harvest that can be bought or sold. Ownership of a share gives a fisher a property right to a portion of the allowable harvest that essentially privatizes the resource and eliminates the incentive for fishers to compete for the same common stock of fish. Such market-based regulation can both reduce overfishing pressures and ensure the overall efficiency of the industry.

Regardless of the management methods adopted, there has been movement worldwide toward establishing stricter fisheries management controls that are intended to protect fish stocks more aggressively from the threat of extinction. As fish continue to play a major role in world trade and the food supply, most fisheries biologists and economists believe that continued vigilance is required to ensure that this resource remains available for future generations by using fishing methods that are economically sound and environmentally sustainable.

SEE ALSO Developing Countries; Industry; Technological Progress, Economic Growth; Tragedy of the Commons

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, Lee G. 1986. The Economics of Fisheries Management, rev. and enl. ed. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

International Labour Organization. 2004. Conditions of Work in the Fishing Sector: A Comprehensive Standard (a Convention Supplemented by a Recommendation) on Work in the Fishing Sector. International Labour Conference, 92nd Session. Geneva: International Labour Office.

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. 2004. The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture. Editorial Production and Design Group, Publishing Management Service. Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization.

United States Department of Commerce. 1999. Our Living Oceans: Report on the Status of U.S. Living Marine Resources 1999. Washington, DC: National Marine Fisheries Service.

David G. Terkla

Peter B. Doeringer

FISHING INDUSTRY (COMMERCIAL)

Although the U.S. commercial fishing industry had seen many changes since its earliest days, it has remained an important part of the economy for many communities, states, and countries. Throughout the twentieth century, an ever-increasing population fueled many changes in the industry, including technological advances in fishermen's ability to catch, successfully transport, and sell products. It also caused a constant increase of the number of fishing fleets around the world. These changes were a mixed blessing for the industry. A widespread demand in the use of ocean products (ranging from the use of fish protein as an additive in livestock feed to fish burgers at the local drive-through window) made the industry extremely profitable. On the other hand, this increase in demand also meant an increase in the number of fleets, industry investors, and fisherman, which eventually ended in the world's oceans becoming over-fished.

The first fishing vessels were powered by sail, and they were developed to fill the needs of the particular fishing region. This meant that the design of boats from different regions varied according to a particular environment or fishery. In the nineteenth century larger steam-driven winches replaced sailboats, allowing for heavier fishing gear and larger crews. By the end of the nineteenth century the internal combustion engine supplanted steam, and in the early twentieth century the inboard diesel engine had become accepted worldwide as the propulsion of choice.

These improvements in the overall size, speed, and range of fishing vessels led to advances in the methods used by fisherman to increase fish hauls. Larger catches, translating into larger profits, could now be obtained by increasing the number of hooks per line from one to over one thousand. Single traps were networked into a system of hundreds of connected traps. Nets became much larger, and their development even initiated a sub-industry in support of commercial fishing. Net-making is an industry that evolved from the making of nets from linen and hemp to the making of nets from cotton and hard fibers woven by rapidly moving machines. Small family fishing boats and cast netters were finding it tough to compete with the volume and subsequent lower price produced by the larger commercial fishing fleets.

Several developments during the 1940s and 1950s had a very significant impact on the profitability and stability of the commercial fishing industry. Mechanization made significant advances in netting methods when the power block was invented, which made it easier for fishermen to haul and store gear while purse seining (a method of fishing using a net that is weighted at the bottom and has floats along the top). Also important was the introduction of devices such as the power-driven drum designed to carry and store seine nets, gill nets, purse seines, and even the large trawl nets. Perhaps the most important development of the decade came with the invention of stern trawlers that processed their catch on board. Developed by the British, this idea was eagerly copied by many countries, including the Soviet Union, Japan, Poland, and Spain. The importance of this technology went beyond the vast quantities of ocean products that could now be processed at sea and sold more quickly back on land. The new technology brought about the collapse of some resources harvested by these highly efficient seiners and with it the realization that these resources were not limitless and needed to be protected.

In 1972 Iceland became the first country to claim an extended fisheries limit of 50 miles. In 1975 it extended this limit to 200 miles. Several countries followed Iceland's lead and soon the Law of the Sea was passed. This allowed for an exclusive economic zone of 200 miles off the coast of each country.

Many coastal communities in the United States are today supported by the commercial fishing industry, which became the largest private employer in states such as Alaska. According to government statistics printed in U.S. Industry Profiles in 1995, 364,000 people were employed in fishing industries in 1988. Of that number, 274,000 were fishermen and 90,000 were shore workers.

Although the industry is quite large in certain areas, pay levels are low. Compensation of fishermen is usually based on the percentage of the catch brought in by their captain's boat. Based on the earnings information of 1988, published in U.S. Industry Profiles, an inshore fisherman working within three miles of shore received an average salary of between $15,000 and $20,000, while an off-shore fisherman working outside the three mile limit earned an average of $30,000.

Not all of the profits generated from the commercial fishing industry come from the sale of ocean products. Freshwater fishing, carried out in lakes, rivers, or streams, does contribute a small percentage of the fish consumed globally. Fresh water fisheries tend to be more specialized depending on the species of fish they are producing. Fish such as the salmon and sturgeon that live in the sea but spawn in fresh water, and the eel that lives in fresh water but spawns in the sea, have forced these fisheries to become as specialized as they are. Other contributions to the specialty of fresh water fishing are the variations in the physical and chemical properties of fresh water in different areas and the overall size of the body of water itself.

Fish farming in aquatic hatcheries is another form of revenue supporting the fishing industry. Fish farming is the practice of raising generations of fish in controlled environments free from predators and maintained in optimal conditions. These fish farms supply plants and animals for a variety of purposes, including the production of animals for live bait, stocking purposes for sport fisheries, as well as the needs of the pharmaceutical industry. Many of the products of fish farms are the high-priced species that are sold as fresh products. Among these are shrimp, salmon, and oysters. The depletion of natural sources has helped provide more demand to support these hatcheries and it has allowed them to expand their production to other species, some of which are fresh water varieties, like catfish and trout.

Although fish farms offered the fishing industry several alternative methods of production, industry experts maintained concern with the depletion of resources in the world's oceans. Traditional techniques for managing fishery resources remain under close scrutiny, and calls for greater regulation of the industry have grown in number. According to Amos Eno, spokesperson for the National Fish and Wildlife Association, marine fisheries were the single most threatened resource in the United States in the late 1990s.

FURTHER READING

Bay-Hansen, C. D. Fisheries of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Traditional Commercial Fisheries. New York: Vantage Press, 1992.

Cheney, Daniel P., Thomas Mumford, and Thomas Mumford, Jr. Shellfish and Seaweed Harvests of Puget Sound. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1987.

Maril, Robert Lee. The Bay Shrimpers of Texas: Rural Fishermen in a Global Economy. Kansas City, MO: University of Kansas Press, 1995.

Oakley, Barbara A. Hair of the Dog: Tales from Aboard a Russian Trawler. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 1996.

Sainsbury, John C. Commercial Fishing Methods: An Introduction to Vessels and Gears. Boston: Blackwell Science Inc., 1996.

fisheries From earliest times and in practically all countries, fisheries have been of industrial and commercial importance. In the large N Atlantic fishing grounds off Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, European and North American fishing fleets have long taken cod, herring, haddock, flounder, and mackerel; the recent collapse of some of these stocks has been devastating to local economies. Worldwide, the most important catches include herring, smelt, cod, haddock, perch, tuna, mackerel, salmon, trout, shrimp, smelt, and flounder. The annual world catch of fish averaged more than 100 million tons in the 1990s. China, by far the world's leading fishing country, has had about 25% of this total, while the United States has averaged about 5% of the world catch. Per capita consumption of fish and shellfish in the United States averages about 15 pounds.

Commercial Fishing Methods

The commercial methods chiefly used—each with a great variety of modifications—employ encircling nets (purse seine, haul seine, trawl seine), entangling nets (gill and trammel), lines, and traps (for lobster and crab). Trawlers and purse boats take most commercial catches. Since World War II, Japan and Russia (formerly the Soviet Union) have been operating factory ships that freeze or can fish shortly after they are caught. The drying, canning, salting, and preserving of fish comprise a vast industry with, in addition, the manufacture of numerous byproducts, including glue, fertilizer, and in Asia, fish sauces.

Control of Fishing Rights

Because of the economic importance of the industry, numerous disputes have developed over fishing rights. Increasingly concerns about overfishing, pollution, and declining fish catches have forced governments to pass measures designed to protect and conserve this resource. In the United States, domestic fisheries are generally governed by state regulations, except where the Constitution provides for national control as a result of the treaty-making power and the regulation of navigation, customs, and interstate commerce. State fishery legislation is generally designed to protect the fisheries by regulating the way fish are caught, imposing catch limits, closing some waters to commercial fishing, reducing the times when fishing is legal, and protecting certain species. National governments generally restrict fishing rights within territorial waters to citizens and may establish jurisdiction over portions of the open sea, but the right to take products from the high seas is a subject for international agreements.

History of Fisheries Regulation

Fisheries have occupied an important place in the economic structure of many countries throughout history. The Black Sea fisheries formed an important source of Phoenician and Greek income; Spanish and Sicilian waters yielded fish for Rome; the economy of the Hanseatic League was partly based on the North Sea herring fisheries; cod fishing was a chief industry of New England; and fisheries in the Pacific are vital to Japan. For that reason fishing rights have long been the basis of controversy.

In the modern age such disputes have generally been settled by arbitration or by treaties. Fishing rights that had been enjoyed by the American colonists on the entire Atlantic coast were confirmed in the Treaty of Paris (1783), but the right to dry fish on the Newfoundland coast and on the settled parts of the Labrador and Nova Scotian coasts (except by agreement with the inhabitants) was expressly denied. The outbreak of the War of 1812 led to a new treaty (1818) that further restricted American rights. This convention was replaced by the reciprocity treaty of 1854, which abolished all restrictions except for shellfish. But disputes continued until 1910, when the North Atlantic Coast Fisheries Arbitration at The Hague ended the prolonged controversy. Canada and the United States in 1923 and 1930 signed agreements regulating the halibut fisheries of the N Pacific.

In 1882 Great Britain, Germany, France, Denmark, and Belgium signed the North Sea Fisheries Convention, which ended lawlessness in that area by granting a mutual right of visit, search, and arrest to the public vessels of the treaty powers. A similar treaty, regulating the fishing banks off Iceland and the Faeroe Islands, was signed by Great Britain and Denmark in 1901, and three years later Anglo-French rights in the N Atlantic were set forth in a convention. The fisheries of the Pacific have also been the subject of many international agreements, such as the Japanese right to fish in specified sections of Siberian waters, first granted by the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 and continued by later agreements.

To stabilize international rules governing national rights in the oceans, the United Nations convened the Conference on the Law of the Sea in 1974; one of its concerns was to protect fisheries. The oceans have long been used as a dumping ground, but pollution levels in the open seas as well as coastal areas have risen sharply, thus endangering fisheries. Another threat has been overfishing, which in some areas has severely depleted the available catch. In 1996 the U.S. federal government imposed strict limits on fishing in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, in order to protect the declining New England fishing industry; in 1999 restrictions were imposed along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts in an attempt to conserve depleted stocks of shark, tuna, and marlin. Overfishing is not limited to seas off developed nations; the Java Sea in Indonesia, for example, has been fished to the point where local fishermen cannot count on a catch sufficient to feed their families.

For many years, most countries recognized a 12-mi exclusive fisheries zone, but the rise of fleets of factory ships that could catch and process huge quantities of fish severely reduced catches. The Law of the Sea Treaty (1983) established a 200-mi limit inside which countries had the exclusive right to regulate fishing, and in 1997 the United States set a 200-mi territorial zone to protect its fisheries. The United Nations sponsored (1999) a nonbinding agreement among seafaring nations to address the problem of overfishing worldwide by reducing the size of their fishing fleets.

International efforts to protect marine resources have also involved whaling . The International Whaling Commission outlawed most whaling in 1986, but some countries have refused to comply.

Bibliography

See R. Browning, Fisheries of the North Pacific (1980); L. Anderson, The Economics of Fisheries Management (1986); R. A. Carey Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman (1999).

fisheries, a general term used to denote all the activities concerned with the catching of fish commercially, whether by long-lining, net, or other means. Until about 1900, commercial fishing was largely unregulated. However, the introduction of modern fishing boats fitted with refrigeration—which allows the boats to remain longer over fishing grounds—and electronic aids such as sonar, meant that regulations on an international scale have had to be introduced. International efforts to try and curb overfishing, and to clamp down on those doing it illegally, are one of the environmental issues facing mankind today.

The carbon dating of fish bones in kitchen middens has shown that humankind has been catching marine fish for tens of thousands of years. In the 19th century a committee of investigation chaired by T. H. Huxley (1825–95) concluded that the oceans offer an inexhaustible resource of fish, and this attitude prevailed for decades afterwards. According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, in 2000 worldwide marine fisheries landed a little under 100 million tonnes of fish, providing 15% of animal protein, amounting to 13 kilograms (28 lb) per capita. However, this figure underestimates the fish that were killed, because at least 20% more were discarded as trash fish and by-catch.

Trawls dragged along the seabed leave a trail of destruction. It is estimated that over half the area of the North Sea is trawled over each year, some parts as frequently as ten times. Globally, over 50% of fish stocks are either overfished or fished to their maximum sustainable capacity, so fishery scientists are desperately seeking to establish how the catches can be maintained while still enabling fishermen to make a living. Marine fishing and aquaculture gives employment to about 20 million people worldwide, and has an annual value of $55 billion. The scales of various fisheries range from individual artisanal fishermen using simple basic equipment catching fish for their own consumption, to large technically sophisticated fishing boats that are fishing to sell their catch for profit.

Commercial fisheries can be subdivided into pelagic (living in the water) and demersal (living on the seabed) fisheries, the former catching fish in the water using purse seine nets and long-lines, whereas demersal fisheries target fish on the seabed using trawls, dredges, and traps. Each population of fish that is targeted is called a stock. A stock may be the total population of a particular species, or populations of the same species that spawn in different areas and at different times of year. For example, in the North Sea there are several stocks of herring. In theory a stock can be exploited to give the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) by catching fish at the same rate that they are being replaced. However, the number of new young fish (recruits) entering the stock fluctuates extensively year by year. This is because of variations in weather and climate, making accurate assessments of MSY impossible. So quotas of fish that can be harvested should, according to the Precautionary Principle, be set below the theoretical MSY. However, so strong are the economic and political pressures to set quotas at the maximum levels that what is set often exceeds the theoretical MSY, so stocks are constantly being over-exploited. Juvenile fish should not be caught until they have had a chance to spawn, which is achieved by regulating the minimum size of the mesh that can be used in the construction of trawls and purse seines. However, since in many fisheries several species of fish are caught, some undersized fish are taken and these have to be discarded.

The majority of commercial fish are caught in the shallow waters of the continental shelves, within the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of coastal states. While these states have exclusive rights to the fish in their EEZ, they also have the obligation to exploit these stocks in a sustainable way, but many do not have sufficient resources to do so. Another major management problem arises with stocks that migrate between the EEZs of different countries: national boundaries have no environmental relevance as fish abundance is related to the productivity of the ocean waters, which is highest in regions where there are abundant nutrients in the surface waters. These areas are either in temperate regions where there is a seasonal cycle in the thermal stratification of the upper ocean, or where upwelling brings nutrients up into the surface waters. The main upwelling regions mostly occur along the equator, particularly in the Pacific, along the eastern boundaries of the continents, off Peru, California, south-west Africa, and Mauritania, and the regions in the north-west Indian Ocean influenced by the monsoon.

In 2000 the fishes contributing most to the global harvest were anchovetta off Peru (11.3 million tonnes) and the Alaskan species of pollock (3 million tonnes) and herring (2.4 million tonnes).

See also drifter; trawler.

Bibliography

Merrett, N., and and Haedrich, R. , Deep-Sea Demersal Fish and Fisheries (1997).www.defra.gov.uk/fish/fishindx.htmwww.fao.org/fi/default_all.asp

M. V. Angel

Fisheries. From Indian subsistence to global markets, fisheries loom large in American history. Ancient weir sites under Boston Bay and along the Northwest coast and huge bone deposits at The Dalles in Oregon offer evidence that North Americans have fished intensively for more than nine thousand years. European cod fishermen venturing into the northwestern Atlantic in the 1480s soon came ashore in Newfoundland, Acadia, and New England, establishing some of the earliest permanent settlements. By the 1700s, fishers caught Atlantic salmon, lobsters, and cod; indeed, control of the cod fisheries figured in the era's diplomacy and imperials wars.

Evolving technologies have included aboriginal spears, nets, and weirs and European purse seines. The salmon fisheries’ adoption of pound nets and fish wheels in the 1870s and the introduction of the otter trawl net in 1905 increased catches. Early Europeans cured cod by salting the wet fish on shipboard, but by the later 1500s they were drying and salting fish on shore. Canning emerged in the mid‐1800s, freezing late in the century. In the 1940s, giant factory trawlers combined these operations.

The history of fisheries varies by region. In New England, freshwater species began to disappear after 1800 as agriculture, urbanization, and manufacturing altered their habitats, but offshore fishing and whaling remained economic mainstays. In the twentieth century, cod, striped bass, tuna, and marlin were the principal commercial fish, while anglers prized eastern trout and Atlantic salmon. Along the middle and south Atlantic coast, Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf Coast, crabs, oysters, striped bass, and shrimp were important, with Indians, African slaves, and poor whites the primary laborers. Anglers coveted warm‐water fish such as bass and bonefish.

Fisheries also arose on inland rivers and lakes, including the Mississippi, Illinois, and Nipigon Rivers; the Great Lakes; and Lake Winnipeg, sustaining major industries and communities until habitat destruction undermined them in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Market species included catfish, whitefish, pike, and sturgeon; anglers favored trout and bass. Late twentieth‐century fish culturists created Pacific salmon fisheries, but pollution prevented these stocks from becoming important food sources.

On the West Coast, aboriginal societies caught salmon, eulachon, shellfish, and pinnipeds, while nineteenth‐century Euroamericans pursued Pacific salmon, fur seals, and whales. Commercial fishers in Alaska formed communities that often preceded formal government. Indians, although important laborers initially, had by 1900 been displaced by southern Europeans, Scandinavians, and Asians. In the twentieth century, offshore fleets depleted salmon, halibut, whale, sardine, crab, pollack, and groundfish stocks. Anglers, meanwhile, fished for trout, stocked exotic species, and fought to control salmon and steelhead streams.

Fishery management and regulation were initially local perogatives. In the Colonial Era, towns such as Concord, Massachusetts, set rules and sanctioned monopolies to conserve shad. State fish commissions did not appear until the 1860s. When the first federal fish commissioner tried in 1871 to resolve a conflict in New England over declining scup stocks, the states were ill‐equipped to deal with the issue and the commissioner gave up. Only in Alaska, or when negotiating fishing treaties with Indians and other nations, did federal officials play a primary role, and even here states often contested their power. To avoid regulations, Americans relied on technical solutions such as hatcheries and fishways. When regulations proved unavoidable, they typically fell most heavily on the more marginal members of society.
See also Exploration, Conquest, and Settlement, Era of European; Indian History and Culture; Work.

Bibliography

Harold A. Innis , The Cod Fisheries: The History of an International Economy, rev. ed., 1954.
Joseph E. Taylor III , Making Salmon: An Environmental History of the Northwest Fisheries Crisis, 1999.

Joseph E. Taylor III

fishing industry. Historically, seafood was an important part of people's diet and fishing was a long-established activity round Britain's coasts, complementing subsistence farming or crofting, and providing livelihoods to sea-going communities. Britain was well favoured for the development of a large-scale fishing trade, located in one of the most prolific sectors of the European continental shelf, with seas of moderate depth readily fished for herring, haddock, pilchard, and cod by small vessels. It was also fortunate that the annual movement of herring round the coast worked greatly to the advantage of fisherfolk, giving opportunities for catches everywhere at some time of the year.

By the 17th cent. fish had become a growing item of trade, especially for the Scots and Irish, but the wealth of the offshore grounds also benefited the Dutch, who were active mainly in the North Sea. Indeed the competition of the Dutch caused much alarm and encouraged government policy to promote native fisheries still further, notably in Scotland under the Board of Trustees for Fisheries and Manufactures, established in 1727. Although bounties (or grants) were offered on vessels fitted out for herring fishing, other legislation on fishing practices and the high duty on salt needed for curing handicapped expansion. The establishment of the British Fisheries Society in 1786 coincided with a new attitude. Bounties were promised on herring catches and on fish exports and the Salt Laws were relaxed soon after in favour of the fisherman.

During the 19th cent. the fishing industry experienced dramatic expansion and by the 1850s the herring fishery on the east coast was the largest in Europe. The fishing population and communities grew accordingly, with Lowestoft, Hull, and Aberdeen the main fishing ports. As with agricultural produce the growth of the market for fresh fish coincided with the development of the railways and of refrigeration and these encouraged the introduction of steam trawling, initially in inshore waters, after 1880. Deep-sea fishing had meantime been pioneered by whalers working out of British ports, including Hull and Dundee.

By 1914 the industry was large scale, capital intensive, and, despite an important domestic market, much dependent on foreign exports. It experienced the same painful adjustment to changing circumstances as other industries during the depression. Falling prices and deteriorating equipment were the main problems, so that by 1939 the industry had shrunk from its peak at the turn of the century. Herring fishing never regained its previous significance, even when revitalization ultimately came after 1945, and white fishing became the mainstay of the industry.

As stocks were progressively exhausted through over-fishing, access to fishing grounds became a major source of conflict between Britain and other nations, especially with Iceland to the north and Spain to the south. Relations between Britain and Iceland reached crisis point during a series of ‘cod wars’ in the 1960s and the fishing of southern waters by Spain was a continuing grievance of the Cornish industry. The European Community and its successor, the European Union, as well as national governments, attempted to regulate catches through quota systems and the Common Fisheries Policy, but not without sustained resistance from the fishing industry. Whaling was abandoned on environmental and conservation grounds. Rising prices made fish-farming in inshore waters more viable and since the 1970s this has become an increasingly important source of supply and export earnings, especially at the luxury end of the market.

Ian Donnachie

fish·er·y / ˈfishərē/ • n. (pl. -er·ies) a place where fish are reared for commercial purposes. ∎  a fishing ground or area where fish are caught. ∎  the occupation or industry of catching or rearing fish.

Fishery

a collection of fish of different kinds, 1828; a group of fishermen, 1710.

fishery •beery, bleary, cheery, dearie, dreary, Dun Laoghaire, eerie, eyrie (US aerie), Kashmiri, leery, peri, praemunire, query, smeary, teary, theory, weary •Deirdre • incendiary • intermediary •subsidiary •auxiliary, ciliary, domiciliary •apiary • topiary • farriery • furriery •justiciary •bestiary, vestiary •breviary • aviary • hosiery •diary, enquiry, expiry, fiery, friary, inquiry, miry, priory, spiry, wiry •podiatry, psychiatry •dowry, floury, flowery, loury, showery, towery •brewery • jewellery (US jewelry) •curie, de jure, fioriture, fury, houri, Jewry, jury, Manipuri, Missouri, moory, Newry, tandoori, Urey •statuary • actuary • sanctuary •obituary • sumptuary • voluptuary •January • electuary • ossuary •mortuary •Bradbury, Cadbury •blackberry, hackberry •cranberry • waxberry •Barbary, barberry •Shaftesbury • raspberry •bayberry, blaeberry •Avebury • Aylesbury • Sainsbury •bilberry, tilbury •bribery •corroboree, jobbery, robbery, slobbery, snobbery •dogberry • Roddenberry • Fosbury •strawberry • Salisbury •crowberry, snowberry •chokeberry •Rosebery, Shrewsbury •blueberry, dewberry •Dewsbury • Bloomsbury • gooseberry •blubbery, rubbery, shrubbery •Sudbury • mulberry • huckleberry •Bunbury • husbandry • loganberry •Canterbury • Glastonbury •Burberry, turbary •hatchery • archery •lechery, treachery •stitchery, witchery •debauchery • butchery • camaraderie •cindery, tindery •industry • dromedary • lapidary •spidery • bindery • doddery •quandary • powdery • boundary •bouldery • embroidery •prudery, rudery •do-goodery • shuddery • thundery •prebendary • legendary • secondary •amphorae • wafery •midwifery, periphery •infantry • housewifery • spoofery •puffery • sulphury (US sulfury) •Calgary •beggary, Gregory •vagary •piggery, priggery, whiggery •brigandry • bigotry • allegory •vinegary • category • subcategory •hoggery, toggery •pettifoggery • demagoguery •roguery • sugary •buggery, skulduggery, snuggery, thuggery •Hungary • humbuggery •ironmongery • lingerie • treasury •usury • menagerie • pageantry •Marjorie • kedgeree • gingery •imagery • orangery • savagery •forgery • soldiery • drudgery •perjury, surgery •microsurgery •hackery, quackery, Thackeray, Zachary •mountebankery • knick-knackery •gimcrackery • peccary • grotesquerie •bakery, fakery, jacquerie •chickaree, chicory, hickory, Terpsichore, trickery •whiskery • apothecary •crockery, mockery, rockery •falconry • jiggery-pokery •cookery, crookery, rookery •brusquerie •puckery, succory •cuckoldry •calorie, gallery, Malory, salary, Valerie •saddlery • balladry • gallantry •kilocalorie • diablerie • chandlery •harlotry • celery • pedlary •exemplary •helotry, zealotry •nailery, raillery •Tuileries •ancillary, artillery, capillary, codicillary, distillery, fibrillary, fritillary, Hilary, maxillary, pillory •mamillary • tutelary • corollary •bardolatry, hagiolatry, iconolatry, idolatry •cajolery, drollery •foolery, tomfoolery •constabulary, vocabulary •scapulary • capitulary • formulary •scullery • jugglery • cutlery •chancellery • epistolary • burglary •mammary • fragmentary •passementerie • flimflammery •armory, armoury, gendarmerie •almonry •emery, memory •creamery • shimmery • primary •rosemary • yeomanry •parfumerie, perfumery •flummery, Montgomery, mummery, summary, summery •gossamery • customary • infirmary •cannery, granary, tannery •canonry •antennary, bimillenary, millenary, venery •tenantry • chicanery •beanery, bicentenary, catenary, centenary, deanery, greenery, machinery, plenary, scenery, senary, septenary •disciplinary, interdisciplinary •hymnary • missionary •ordinary, subordinary •valetudinary • imaginary • millinery •culinary • seminary • preliminary •luminary • urinary • veterinary •mercenary • sanguinary •binary, finery, pinery, quinary, vinery, winery •Connery • Conakry • ornery • joinery •buffoonery, poltroonery, sublunary, superlunary •gunnery, nunnery •consuetudinary • visionary •exclusionary • legionary • pulmonary •coronary • reactionary • expansionary •concessionary, confessionary, discretionary •confectionery, insurrectionary, lectionary •deflationary, inflationary, probationary, stationary, stationery •expeditionary, petitionary, prohibitionary, traditionary, transitionary •dictionary • cautionary •ablutionary, counter-revolutionary, devolutionary, elocutionary, evolutionary, revolutionary, substitutionary •functionary •diversionary, reversionary •fernery, quaternary, ternary •peppery • extempore • weaponry •apery, drapery, japery, napery, papery, vapoury (US vapory) •frippery, slippery •coppery, foppery •popery • dupery • trumpery •February • heraldry • knight-errantry •arbitrary • registrary • library •contrary • horary • supernumerary •itinerary • honorary • funerary •contemporary, extemporary, temporary •literary • brasserie • chancery •accessory, intercessory, pessary, possessory, tesserae •dispensary, incensory, ostensory, sensory, suspensory •tracery •pâtisserie, rotisserie •emissary • dimissory •commissary, promissory •janissary • necessary • derisory •glossary • responsory • sorcery •grocery • greengrocery •delusory, illusory •compulsory • vavasory • adversary •anniversary, bursary, cursory, mercery, nursery •haberdashery •evidentiary, penitentiary, plenipotentiary, residentiary •beneficiary, fishery, judiciary •noshery • gaucherie • fiduciary •luxury • tertiary •battery, cattery, chattery, flattery, tattery •factory, manufactory, olfactory, phylactery, refractory, satisfactory •artery, martyry, Tartary •mastery, plastery •directory, ex-directory, interjectory, rectory, refectory, trajectory •peremptory •alimentary, complementary, complimentary, documentary, elementary, parliamentary, rudimentary, sedimentary, supplementary, testamentary •investigatory •adulatory, aleatory, approbatory, celebratory, clarificatory, classificatory, commendatory, congratulatory, consecratory, denigratory, elevatory, gyratory, incantatory, incubatory, intimidatory, modificatory, participatory, placatory, pulsatory, purificatory, reificatory, revelatory, rotatory •natatory • elucidatory • castigatory •mitigatory • justificatory •imprecatory • equivocatory •flagellatory • execratory • innovatory •eatery, excretory •glittery, jittery, skittery, twittery •benedictory, contradictory, maledictory, valedictory, victory •printery, splintery •consistory, history, mystery •presbytery •inhibitory, prohibitory •hereditary • auditory • budgetary •military, paramilitary •solitary • cemetery • limitary •vomitory • dormitory • fumitory •interplanetary, planetary, sanitary •primogenitary • dignitary •admonitory, monitory •unitary • monetary • territory •secretary • undersecretary •plebiscitary • repository • baptistery •transitory •depositary, depository, expository, suppository •niterie •Godwottery, lottery, pottery, tottery •bottomry • watery • psaltery •coterie, notary, protonotary, rotary, votary •upholstery •bijouterie, charcuterie, circumlocutory •persecutory • statutory • salutary •executory •contributory, retributory, tributary •interlocutory •buttery, fluttery •introductory • adultery • effrontery •perfunctory • blustery • mediatory •retaliatory • conciliatory • expiatory •denunciatory, renunciatory •appreciatory, depreciatory •initiatory, propitiatory •dietary, proprietary •extenuatory •mandatary, mandatory •predatory • sedentary • laudatory •prefatory • offertory • negatory •obligatory •derogatory, interrogatory, supererogatory •nugatory •expurgatory, objurgatory, purgatory •precatory •explicatory, indicatory, vindicatory •confiscatory, piscatory •dedicatory • judicatory •qualificatory • pacificatory •supplicatory •communicatory, excommunicatory •masticatory • prognosticatory •invocatory • obfuscatory •revocatory • charlatanry •depilatory, dilatory, oscillatory •assimilatory • consolatory •voluntary • emasculatory •ejaculatory •ambulatory, circumambulatory, perambulatory •regulatory •articulatory, gesticulatory •manipulatory • copulatory •expostulatory • circulatory •amatory, declamatory, defamatory, exclamatory, inflammatory, proclamatory •crematory • segmentary •lachrymatory •commentary, promontory •informatory, reformatory •momentary •affirmatory, confirmatory •explanatory • damnatory •condemnatory •cosignatory, signatory •combinatory •discriminatory, eliminatory, incriminatory, recriminatory •comminatory • exterminatory •hallucinatory • procrastinatory •monastery • repertory •emancipatory • anticipatory •exculpatory, inculpatory •declaratory, preparatory •respiratory • perspiratory •vibratory •migratory, transmigratory •exploratory, laboratory, oratory •inauguratory • adjuratory •corroboratory • reverberatory •refrigeratory • compensatory •desultory • dysentery •exhortatory, hortatory •salutatory • gustatory • lavatory •inventory •conservatory, observatory •improvisatory •accusatory, excusatory •lathery •feathery, heathery, leathery •dithery, slithery •carvery •reverie, severy •Avery, bravery, knavery, quavery, Savery, savory, savoury, slavery, wavery •thievery •livery, quivery, shivery •silvery •ivory, salivary •ovary •discovery, recovery •servery • equerry • reliquary •antiquary • cassowary • stipendiary •colliery • pecuniary • chinoiserie •misery • wizardry • citizenry •advisory, provisory, revisory, supervisory •causerie, rosary