The FAOAREAS REF Table

The FAOAREAS REF table contains the names of the 27 statistical areas as defined by FAO, together with some notes on these, based on data from the World Resources Institute (WRI 1990, 1996). These include the length of the Coastline, the estimated Shelf area to 200 m depth, and the area of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) [not presently shown in user version]. Note, however, that coastline length has a fractal dimension and thus should not be used in comparative studies unless measured with the same ‘stick length’. WRI is working on such standardized coastline lengths, and we will use these as soon as they become available.

The coordinates of a point in the Center of the FAO area are provided for displaying a label at this locality, e.g., in WinMap (this vol.). The coordinates of a rectangle or what we call the Range, together with the FAO area are used to find gross errors in species occurrence data. Clicking on the Status button gives the number of species and families FishBase assigned to the area, and when available, the estimated number of species in the area derived from literature.

On the click of a button, area-specific information such as included Countries, Nominal catches and FAO aquaculture production become available.

How to get there

You get to this table by clicking on the Range button in the SPECIES window, the FAO areas button in the STOCKS window, and the More information on the area button in the FAOAREAS window. Alternatively, you can click on the Reports button in the Main Menu, the FAO Statistics button in the PREDEFINED REPORTS window, and the FAO Areas button in the FAO STATISTICS window.

Internet

On the Internet version, you get to this table by clicking on FAO Areas in the ‘More information’ section of the ‘Species Summary’ page, and then clicking on any of the FAO Areas in the resulting list.

References

WRI. 1990. 1990-1991 World Resources: a guide to the global environment. World Resources Institute. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. 383 p.

WRI. 1996. World Resources 1996-97. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. 383 p.

Rainer Froese