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Synonyms

fishery

American  
[fish-uh-ree] / ˈfɪʃ ə ri /

noun

fisheries plural
  1. a place where fish are bred; fish hatchery.

  2. a place where fish or shellfish are caught.

  3. the occupation or industry of catching, processing, or selling fish or shellfish.

  4. Law. the right to fish in certain waters or at certain times.


fishery British  
/ ˈfɪʃərɪ /

noun

    1. the industry of catching, processing, and selling fish

    2. a place where this is carried on

  1. a place where fish are reared

  2. a fishing ground

  3. another word for piscary

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of fishery

First recorded in 1520–30; fish + -ery ( def. )

Vocabulary lists containing fishery

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

But no yellow eels will be caught on the Lough this year - or for the next two years - following the closure of the fishery.

From BBC Jul. 27, 2026

It brought major disruption to marine ecosystems: mass die-offs of seabirds, fishery disasters, kelp degradation, whale entanglements, sea lion starvation, fish migration and harmful algal blooms, Amaya said.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 16, 2026

Bristol Water said it wants to improve diverse wildlife at Blagdon Lake, a 440-acre reservoir and trout fishery in the Mendip Hills, Somerset.

From BBC Mar. 8, 2026

Fishing for the invasive blue catfish in the Potomac downstream of D.C. has skyrocketed in recent years, and there is concern about how the fishery will be affected.

From The Wall Street Journal Feb. 19, 2026

On searching further, the fishery officers found other plants where rains or ordinary clean-up waters would carry insecticides into the sewer.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

Yurok Tribe construction and fisheries crews pulled up roughly 20 acres of thick asphalt, restored the channel to a mile-long braided waterway and built wetlands and two ponds.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 28, 2026

They found a guy who did an ad against some Norwegian salmon commercial fisheries, realized he was cut straight from central casting, and that’s how we got Graham Platner.

From Salon Jul. 10, 2026

The fishing: The upper Potomac River near Leesburg is one of the more underrated fisheries on the East Coast, known for its smallmouth bass.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 8, 2026

Chris Williams, fisheries section co-ordinator at the International Transport Workers Federation, said there was a "structural, systemic problem" in migrant worker recruitment in the fishing industry.

From BBC Jun. 8, 2026

Another type of intensified food-gathering activity that developed was the freshwater eel fisheries of the Murray-Darling river system, where water levels in marshes fluctuate with seasonal rains.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

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