What Is The Difference Between Recreational and Commercial Fishing?

In the early era, fishing is done primarily for food consumption but nowadays, it is practiced not only for consumption but also for fun, research work, and industrial purposes. Technological advancements had made it easy to catch fish, however, there are still many people who prefer the traditional way of catching for the purpose of relaxation.

Modern day fishing is broadly categorized into recreational and commercial fishing.

Differentiating Recreational and Commercial

Recreational fishing is also known as sports fishing. This is usually done for fun and competition purposes. Using the basic method of catching, this type of fishing differs from commercial category in many ways. Fish catching in this category is usually done in lighter boats with rods, reels, hooks and baits. Lighter boats are used so as not to make disturbance for a successful catch.

Sometimes this is also done inland with the same equipment used, usually beside a lake.

What Is The Commercial or Industrial Fishing

Commercial fishing, if done on large scale, is also called an industrial fishing. This commercial type of fishing which uses equipment such as trawlers and factory ships aims to provide seafood supply for the market. Trawlers are used for commercial purposes while factory ships are used for industrial purposes.

Generally, the trawlers are equipped with nets, trawl and pot-traps. Factory ships on the other hand are large vessels with dynamic on-board facilities for immediate processing and freezing of caught seafood. These factory ships are capable of storing tons of seafood at a time. Unlike recreational fishing, commercial fishing is a serious revenue generating career for people. But it is considered as a very dangerous career line because of its high fatality rate.

The alarming rate of marine species extinction has also been attributed to this kind of industrial fishing.

What Is The Role of Government

Several non-profit organizations continuously file petition against recreational fishing as well as commercial fishing to protect other marine forms of life. Thus some government agencies were formed to monitor excessive catching of fish that can be dangerous for the existence of several marine species. Strict rules and regulations have been imposed to control catching of fish to a reasonable extent.

Like commercial fishing, recreational fishing is also subject to the intervention of the government. Government regulations make quotas, treaties and laws to control the catching of fishes otherwise the extinction of marine species will rise at an alarming rate.