by Ehren Wells

Created on: December 05, 2008   Last Updated: September 05, 2010

If you're an investor looking for a growth industry, one of your best bets might be commercial fishing. According to William T. Hogarth, Ph.D., in an article written for Seafood Business Magazine, worldwide demand for seafood will likely see an increase of 40 million tons by the year 2030. That's considerable anticipated growth for an already $70 billion-a-year industry. But that growth comes with a high cost, however, and for the inhabitants of this planet those costs will largely be measured in terms of environmental impact.

Commercial fishing is a timeless industry, existing perhaps as long as people have needed food. In being timeless, the industry's methods are simple; in practice, they're finely honed variations of an old theme. The net, for example, has been around for eons, but today's nets are refined to target fish of a certain size then placed strategically in the water column where they are most likely to be found. Nets can be fixed in one location, dragged along by a boat, or let free to drift with the prevailing currents.

To a lesser extent, some commercial fishing takes place via baited hook, a technique that works well for aggressive fish and squid. The baited hook has been around almost as long as the net, but today's commercial fishing lines have a lot more hooks and a lot better bait - a combination known as long-lining.

For species other than fish (mussels, for example) hand-picking is the norm. And for areas where multiple food species are sought or a single species covers a large area (e.g., seaweed), dredging is the method of choice. Simply put, dredging is the act of scouring a water body's floor, either with a rake or hydraulic vacuum, in a manner similar to harvesting wheat with a combine. Other (almost unspeakable fishing methods), used perhaps most notably in Southeast Asia, are those involving dynamite blasting and cyanide poisoning.

Apart from these typical harvest methods, which take place mostly in open waters, the commercial fishing industry also has a few that are more contained. Collectively, these methods can be referred to as fish farming (also known as aquaculture because of its similarity to dry-land agriculture). Fish farming methods are so diverse and unique from fishing that it can be thought of as its own distinct industry. A fish-farmer might grow mussels anchored on long ropes suspended through the water column, raise salmon in "pens" virtually impervious to other aquatic life, or grow crabs in a man-made pool.

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