The sustainable fishing world comes with a lot of vocabulary that most of us probably don’t use in our everyday lives. So, we’ve created a series of definitions to help you become a sustainable fishing expert.
Tldr:
In its simplest form, a fishery is an area where fish are caught for commercial or recreational purposes. It can be a defined body of water or a collection of fishing activities that have been agreed upon by countries and fishers. There are often different fisheries for each target species of fish or shellfish.The details:
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defines a fishery as "a unit determined by an authority or other entity that is engaged in raising and/or harvesting fish."
Typically, a fishery unit is defined by some or more of the following characteristics:
- The people involved.
Example: the Annette Island Reserve Salmon fishery is managed by the Metlakatla Indian Community. It includes multiple species of salmon and gear types, so the main thing this fishery has in common is the people managing and catching the fish. - The species or type of fish.
Example: the BSAI and GOA Alaska pollock fishery includes multiple locations – the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska—but only includes one species, Alaska pollock. - Area of water.
Example: The Louisiana blue crab fishery is defined by its location. Blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) can be found in coastal waters of the eastern Atlantic Ocean from Nova Scotia to Argentina, but this fishery exclusively targets blue crab in Louisiana state waters. - Method of fishing / gear type.
Example: The U.S. Gulf of Mexico menhaden purse seine fishery is defined by the gear type used. Here, they exclusively use purse seines to catch menhaden in the Gulf of Mexico. - Class of boats.
- Purpose of activities.
Example: As its name implies, the Lake Erie Multi-species Commercial fishery is defined by its commercial fishing purpose. There is a lot of recreational fishing in Lake Erie for similar species, but this fishery exists for commercial purposes. Other purposes could be subsistence, or small-scale.
This is the definition the MSC uses to refer to a Unit of Assessment (UoA), which is how we identify the fishery that is under assessment or certified to the MSC Fisheries Standard.
