A fishing fleet is an aggregate of commercial fishing vessels. The term may be used of all vessels operating out of a particular port, all vessels engaged in a particular type of fishing (as in the "tuna fishing fleet"), or all fishing vessels of a country or region.
Although fishing vessels are not formally organized as if they were a naval fleet, very often the constraints of time and weather are such that they must all leave or return together, thus creating at least the appearance of an organized body (some countries, such as the former Soviet Union, did however organise their fishing fleets partially along naval lines and used the ships to also gather naval intelligence).[1]
Fishermen operating a particular type of vessel or in a particular port often belong to a local association which disseminates information and may be used to coordinate activities, such as how best to prevent overfishing in particular areas.
- ^ Moscow's South Pacific Fishing Fleet Is Much More Than It Seems Archived 2009-02-28 at the Wayback Machine - Kim, Byung Ki; The Heritage Foundation, Asian Studies Backgrounder No. 80 September 6, 1988.