Commercial fishermen

Commercial sector

Commercial fishermen harvest a wide variety of animals. However, a very small number of species support the majority of the world's fisheries; these include 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 milliontonnes in 1999, with herring and sardines together providing a catch of over 22 million metric tons in 1999. Many other species are fished in smaller numbers.