Technical Notes: Capture and Aquaculture Production Totals for Marine and Inland Fisheries VARIABLE DEFINITIONS AND METHODOLOGY Total Capture and Aquaculture Production for All Species includes both capture and aquaculture production of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic mammals, and other aquatic animals, taken for commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes from inland, brackish and marine waters. For each country, the four sub-categories of production (Marine Aquaculture, Inland Aquaculture, Marine Capture, and Inland Capture) listed in this table should sum to Total Capture and Aquaculture Production for All Species. Marine Aquaculture Production data include fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic mammals, and other aquatic animals, taken for commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes from marine and brackish environments. The harvest from inland waters is not included. Aquaculture production is defined by FAO as "the farming of aquatic organisms, including fish, molluscs, crustaceans, and aquatic plants. Farming implies some form of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc. [It] also implies ownership of the stock being cultivated." Aquatic organisms that are exploitable by the public as a common property resource are not included in the aquaculture production. Inland Aquaculture production data include fish, molluscs, crustaceans, aquatic mammals, and other aquatic animals, taken for commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes from inland waters, such as lakes and rivers. The harvest from marine areas is not included. Some inland lakes are saltwater, thus the data include not only freshwater species but also saltwater species. Aquaculture production is defined by FAO as "the farming of aquatic organisms, including fish, molluscs, crustaceans, and aquatic plants. Farming implies some form of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc. [It] also implies ownership of the stock being cultivated." Aquatic organisms that are exploitable by the public as a common property resource are not included in the aquaculture production. Marine Capture Production data include fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic mammals, and other aquatic animals, taken for commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes from marine and brackish environments. The harvest from inland waters is not included. Capture production data refer to the nominal catch of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic mammals, and other aquatic animals, taken for commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes from marine, brackish, and inland waters. The harvest from aquaculture and other kind of farming are excluded. Inland Capture Production data include fish, molluscs, crustaceans, aquatic mammals, and other aquatic animals, taken for commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes from inland waters, such as lakes and rivers. The harvest from marine areas is not included. Some inland lakes are saltwater, thus the data include not only freshwater species but also saltwater species. Capture production data refer to the nominal catch of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic mammals, and other aquatic animals, taken for commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes from marine, brackish, and inland waters. The harvest from aquaculture and other kind of farming are excluded. Statistics for aquatic plants are excluded from country totals. For a more detailed listing of species groups represented in the table, please refer to the original source at http://www.fao.org/waicent/faostat/agricult/fishitems-e-e.html. Data include all quantities caught for both food and feed purposes but exclude discards. The harvest of fish, crustaceans and molluscs are expressed in live weight, that is the nominal weight of the aquatic organisms at the time of capture. Aquatic organisms included in the FAO FISHSTAT capture production database have been classified according to approximately 1290 commercial species items, further arranged within the 50 groups of species constituting the nine divisions of the FAO International Standard Statistical Classification of Aquatic Animals and Plants (ISSCAAP). Most fisheries statistics are collected by FAO from official national reports. When these data are missing or considered unreliable, FAO estimates fishery production based on regional fishery organizations, project documents, industry magazines, or statistical interpolations. Fishery production statistics were revised completely by FAO in the 1990s. At this time, FAO estimated missing data points, updated taxonomical classifications, and discriminated more clearly between aquaculture and capture fisheries production. Fisheries production statistics typically refer to the calendar years (January 1 to December 31) with exception of data from Antarctic waters, which use a split year (July 1 to June 30). FREQUENCY OF UPDATE BY DATA PROVIDERS FAO publishes updated data sets annually for FishStat. This table represents data through the year 2001; data were acquired by WRI in May, 2003. DATA RELIABILITY AND CAUTIONARY NOTES While the FAO data set provides the most extensive, global time series of fishery statistics since 1970, there are some problems associated with the data. Funding for the development and maintenance of fisheries statistics at the national level has been decreasing in real terms since 1992, while the demand is growing for a variety of global statistics on discards, fish inventories, aquaculture, and illegal activites. Country-level data are often submitted with a 1-2 year delay, and countries are declaring an increasing percentage of their catch as "unidentified fish". As a result, species-item totals frequently underestimate the real catch of individual species. Stock assessment working groups can more accurately estimate the composition of a catch; however, due to financial constraints, these groups are rare, especially in developing countries. Statistics from smaller artisanal and subsistence fisheries are particularly sparse. FAO states that "general trends are probably reliably reflected by the available statistics...but the annual figures and the assessments involve a certain degree of uncertainty and small changes from year to year are probably not statistically significant." These statistics provide a good overview of regional fisheries trends. However, when reviewing the state of fisheries stocks, evaluating food security, etc., these data should be used with caution and supplemented with estimates from regional organizations, academic literature, expert consultations, and trade data. For more information, please consult Fishery Statistics: Reliability and Policy Implications, published by the FAO Fisheries Department and available on-line at http://www.fao.org/fi/statist/nature_china/30jan02.asp. SOURCE Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2003. FISHSTAT Plus: Universal software for fishery statistical time series, Version 2.3 (available on-line at http://www.fao.org/fi/statist/FISOFT/FISHPLUS.asp); Total production dataset. Rome: FAO.