2 Major Differences between Fishery and Fisheries.

Differences between ‘Fishery’ and ‘Fisheries’

This post focuses on the differences between the terms ‘fishery’ and ‘fisheries’, which are spelling variants of the same concept. For clear meanings of fisheries/fishery and examples in various contexts, visit this post: 7 major contexts/meanings of fishery

Highlighting the Differences between ‘Fishery’ and ‘Fisheries’

The words Fishery and Fisheries originated at different times in history. In the past ‘Fisheries’ was used as the plural of ‘Fishery’ and there was no ambiguity when using both terms until neologism set in with the advent of technology and new scientific procedures. Today, these terms have become so polysemous that the term fishery/fisheries can be used in 7 major contexts/meanings. This therefore results in a lot of ambiguity if the writer does not draft clearly. 

Below is a researched screenshot of the usage frequency variation of fishery and fisheries from 1800 to the twenty-first century. These shots were captured from Ngram analysis of both terms as stand-alone nouns (C), on the one hand, then, alongside some common collocations where they are each used as an adjective with licence, resource and vessel (graph A, B, and D respectively), on the other hand.

As regards differences between Fishery and Fisheries, most authors admit that:

1. Fishery is the original singular of fisheries

‘Fishery’ is the original singular while Fisheries is the plural. This notion is noteworthy especially when the number is significant. e.g.

• an oyster fishery, 10 oyster fisheries;
• a modern freshwater fishery, modern freshwater fisheries;
• he holds a fishery (a fishery diploma) from the University of Oxford, the specialists are holders of fisheries from renowned universities.

Explanation: We can conclude after analysing Graph D, that though ‘fishery’ originated earlier than ‘fisheries’, when used as a standalone noun, ‘Fisheries’ rapidly gained popularity in the twentieth century to surpass fishery. Today, we can see that ‘fisheries’ is slightly more popular as a noun than ‘fishery’.

2. ‘Fishery’ is most often the adjective, while ‘fisheries’ is the noun form

‘Fishery’ is mostly used as an adjective, while ‘fisheries’ most often stands alone as a noun.

Consider the examples below:

As adjective

• ‘Building a fishery vessel’, has become preferred and more popular  than saying ‘Building a fisheries vessel’ in global use

As standalone noun

• Using them as standalone nouns, after researching (Google n-gram analysis), we noticed that nowadays, a phrase ending in ‘… fisheries.‘ is more frequent than that with ‘… fishery.‘.  Which goes to support the fact that as nouns, ‘fisheries’ is more popular than ‘fishery’.

Though ‘fisheries sector’ is used across the world, using fishery as an adjective in the word fishery sector is more popular and grammatically better than using ‘fisheries sector’.  If I have to use a term as an adjective, I will prefer ‘fishery’ to ‘fisheries’.

Explanation: We can conclude after analysing graphs A, B, and D, that fishery as an adjective originated earlier and is more frequently used than fisheries. For instance, in graph D, ‘fishery vessel‘ (blue line) was already in use before 1840, while ‘fisheries vessel‘ (red line) only originated around the 1880’s. Nowadays, ‘fishery vessel‘ is more popular than ‘fisheries vessel‘. 

Exceptions and Notes: However, if you do an n-gram analysis of the terms ‘fishery management’ and ‘fisheries management’, you will notice that ‘fisheries management’ turns out to be more frequent than ‘fishery management’. It is true also for ‘fishery sector’, ‘fisheries sector’,  ‘fishery production’, and ‘fisheries production’. NB: These trends are global, and may vary from one sub-region to another slightly.

Are there contexts where fishery and fisheries can be used interchangeably?

Yes! There are several meaningful contexts of the word ‘fishery’ (Read our post on the 7 contexts of ‘fishery‘ with usage examples. ➡ 7 major contexts/meanings of the word fishery). We outlined above, the instances where both terms differ in usage. However, both terms are used interchangeably in many regions across the globe in certain contexts. As explained below:

Plural and singular forms have no significant difference when referring to the sector: E.g. ‘The government is increasingly investing in oyster fishery’, means the same as ‘The government is increasingly investing in oyster fisheries ‘ in many countries.

Recommendations when using the terms ‘fishery’ and ‘fisheries’ to avoid ambiguity

When referring to the activity or field, both terms are generally considered to mean the same thing. One is simply preferred over the other in every region.

• Always avoid using the term ‘fishery’ (or fisheries) repeatedly in a single sentence with each occurrence referring to a different concept. This will spare you from getting into the ambiguity we experienced in our study excerpt above.
• Try to be as clear as possible when writing: It will make no sense to use fishery ambiguously in your sentences if your readers won’t be able to understand you. This means your message won’t get across to your target audience as intended.
• Consult your audience population’s word choice before writing. You may know this by reading fisheries publications from that region or by acquainting with their regional fisheries commission’s terminology.
• Use ‘fishery’/’fisheries’ as an adjective: To avoid ambiguity when using the term ‘fishery/fisheries’, use fishery/fisheries as an adjective and introduce another word. For instance, instead of saying, ‘I own a fishery’, preferably say, ‘I own a fishery industry/business.’ Instead of ‘issuing a fishery’, use ‘issue a fishery licence’.

Below is a simplified table that will enable you to master the differences between the terms :

Table: Differences between fishing, fishery, and fisheries in context examples

Disambiguating close synonyms in fisheries: Role of International Fisheries conventions

It is said that words derive their meanings in context; however, it becomes a hard bone to chew when deciding on the right word to choose from a variety of very close synonyms. Specialised and technical terminology is generally marked by precision, clarity and rigour in the use of jargon to avoid ambiguity or misinterpretation. Nonetheless, there seldom are some rare cases where terms may have very close meanings, resulting in them being used interchangeably by students and even by some experts – the fisheries sector, just like many technical sectors, is not spared. In the fisheries sector, this jargon ambiguity exists. At times, persistent controversies amongst fisheries experts may require a convention (often international) to disambiguate confusing synonyms. In the fisheries sector, due to its multi-sectorial nature, many regional commissions have been established across the world to manage fisheries affairs specific to the respective regions and sub-regions under their jurisdiction.