Fishing fleets

National annual statistics on the number and total tonnage of fish catching used in commercial, subsistence and artisanal fisheries are collected by size of vessel measured in gross register tons (GRT) or gross tons (GT) for 10 types of vessels defined in the International Standard Statistical Classification of Fishery Vessels (ISSCFV). Data for calendar years for 1970, 1975 and annually from 1977 onwards, constitute the series that have been collected, compiled and edited.

Fishing fleet data are collected in several ways. The primary means is to collect the data directly from each country through a questionnaire and explanatory notes. For non-reporting countries and countries submitting incomplete data, other sources are used such as national publications, international fishery magazines, FAO fishery country profiles, national fleet registers and Lloyd's Maritime Information Services database. The latter contains the number and total tonnage of insured vessels but does not include vessels under 100 GRT. Therefore, a large portion of the fishing fleet for most countries is excluded from this database, since most fishing vessels are smaller than 100 tons.

While the FAO database is designed to record data on a systematic basis, the problems in obtaining the information prevent release of timely statistics. To properly use the data, one must consult the many notes included in the relevant publications. These are used by FAO and externally by governments and the industry. Such statistics are particularly useful to the fishing vessel construction industry and equipment suppliers.

Employment

This database contains statistics on the number of commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers from 1970. It is collected on an annual basis by means of a questionnaire which requests separation of the number of workers according to the time devoted to fishing as an occupation (full-time, part-time, occasional) and by inland or marine waters. Based on the revision of the International Standard Classification of Occupations, since 1990 information is also collected on the number of people engaging in commercial aquaculture and on the disaggregation of employment data by gender.

Apparent consumption of fish and fishery products

Annual statistics of supply/utilisation accounts (SUAs) for eight groups of primary fishery commodities and nine groups of processed products are supplied to the FAOSTAT system of food availability and consumption data. The SUAs contain the estimates of supplies from different sources matched against estimates of different forms of utilisation of each product. These series are regularly updated and revised in the light of any new information. The food balance sheets derived from the SUAs of food products are consistent internally. Data on per caput fish food supplies are expressed in terms of quantity and, by applying appropriate food composition factors for all primary and processed products, also in terms of caloric value and protein and fat content. In FAO's work these data are required to meet the requests of its statutory bodies to keep the world's food and nutrition situation under constant review, to update FAO's analytical work in the field of food and population, and to provide the statistical base for the projections of demand and other assessment studies.

The derived apparent consumption statistics are as good as the basic catch, utilisation, trade and production data on which they are based; therefore trends in some cases may reflect improved primary data rather than real changes to food intake.

The database includes SUAs for about 245 countries, territories or land areas from 1961.