Handbook of Fishery Statistical Standards COORDINATING WORKING PARTY ON FISHERY STATISTICS Handbook of Fishery Statistical Standards FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS ROME, 2004 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product for educational or other non-commercial purposes are authorized without any prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of material in this information product for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the copyright holders. Applications for such permission should be addressed to the Chief, Publishing Management Service, Information Division, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy or by e-mail to
[email protected] © FAO 2004 iii PREFACE The eleventh Session of the Coordinating Working Party on Atlantic Fishery Statistics (CWP), conscious of the fact that source and reference documents related to the concepts and definitions used in fishery statistics are widely dispersed and not always readily available, proposed in 1982 that a “Handbook of Fishery Statistics” should be brought together. The first edition (in English) in 1990, based on a draft prepared by L.P.D.Gertenbach, shortly before he retired after many years as FAO’s Senior Fishery Statistician, and as Secretary of the CWP, was extensively developed, edited, restructered and completed by M.A.Robinson (Senior Fishery Statistician, FAO) and David G.