This is a list of aquatic animals that are harvested commercially in the greatest amounts, listed in order of tonnage per year (2012) by the Food and Agriculture Organization. Species listed here have an annual tonnage in excess of 1,600,000 tonnes.
This table includes mainly fish, but also listed are crabs, shrimp, squid, bivalves, and a soft shell turtle.
Note that Oreochromis niloticus and Penaeus monodon appear twice, because substantial amounts are harvested from the wild as well as being extensively raised through aquaculture.
in terms of volume and trade, tuna, salmon and pollock are amongst the most important. salmon originates almost entirely from aquaculture; the other two are exclusively fished. tuna consist of several species, skipjack and yellowfin being the most important. pollock belongs to the family of gadoids, which also includes cod - another very important one.
It depends from the region. In our Central Asian region most important commercial fish species are (in decreasing order of importance): silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix Valenciennes), Common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.), grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella Valenciennes), bighead carp (Aristichthys nobilis (Richardson), Pike-perch (Stizostedion lucioperca (Linnaeus), Channa argus warpachowskii (Berg), eastern bream (Abramis brama), catfish (Silurus glanis), crucian carp (Carassius auratus),
Carps, salmonids and tunas are the main fish families which contain the most important commercial fish species on an international scale. However, many other important species are existed with regional or local importance in various areas.
Commercial fish species varies by country. You should consider two properties both quantity of total production and unit price of fish. For example, anchovy is important commercial fish of our country due to hihg people's preference and high unit price and high landing quantity .