Glossary

Throughout the manual we have used, wherever possible, FAO's glossary of terms available at http://www.fao.org/fi/glossary/

Abundance	Degree of plentifulness. The total number of fish in a population or on a fishing ground. Can be measured in absolute or relative terms.
Access right	In fisheries, an authorization (access right) , given to a user (e.g. a vessel owner) by a competent fishery management authority or by legislation, to exploit a resource, a particular species, or a share of a total allowable catch. Access rights can be granted against payment or free of charge. They are usually conditional and used under constraints specified in the management plan.
Accuracy	Of an estimate: an indicator of the closeness of an estimated value (e.g. population parameter) to the actual value. It should not be confused with precision which relates to the confidence limits (variability) of the estimate and can always be computed from the samples.
Adaptive management	A management process involving step-wise evolution of a flexible management system in response to feedback information actively collected to check or test its performance (in biological, social and economic terms). It may involve deliberate intervention to test the fishery system's response.
Assemblage	In a particular site and time, a collection of co-existing organisms, not strictly inter-dependent but with unspecified relationships (e.g. trophic) between them.
Assessment	A judgement made by a scientist or scientific body on the state of a resource, such as a fish stock (e.g., size of the stock, potential yield, whether it is over-or underexploited), usually for the purpose of passing advice to a management (qv) authority.
Baseline	A set of reference data sets or analyses used for comparative purposes; it can be based on a reference year or a reference set of (standard) conditions.
Bayesian	A formal statistical approach in which expert knowledge or beliefs are analyzed together with data. Bayesian methods make explicit use of probability for quantifying uncertainty. Bayesian methods are particularly useful for making decision analyses.
Bias	A systematic difference between the expected value of a statistical estimate, and the quantity it estimates.
Capacity building	A process of strengthening or developing human resources, institutions, or organizations.
Catch	The total number (or weight) of fish caught by fishing operations. Catch should include all fish killed by the act of fishing, not just those landed.
Catchability	The extent to which a stock is susceptible to fishing.
Co-management	A process of management in which government shares power with resource users, with each given specific rights and responsibilities relating to information and decision-making.
Community	An organized body of individuals in a specific location.
Coordination	The process of bringing together concerned government agencies, research institutions, municipalities, NGOs and resource users to agree on objectives, formulate strategies and subsequently implement them.
Data	Facts that result from measurements or observations.
Database	A logically structured and consistent set of data that can be used for analysis. Commonly used to indicate such data set and the computer software in which it has been organized and stored.
Data set	A collection of data and accompanying documentation which relate to a specific theme.
Decision-maker	An executive person or group responsible for land-use policy, action and allocation of resources.
Dynamic pool model	The term is used to describe analytical yield-per-recruit types of fisheries models describing how growth, recruitment and mortality interact, resulting in biomass and yields.
Equity	In a broad sense, the just distribution of resources, rights, duties, opportunities, and obligations in society at large, i.e. social justice. In an applied sense at micro level, as for example in the sharing of fisheries resources, an allocation rule based on the concepts of parity, proportionality and priority.
Fishery management	The integrated process of information gathering, analysis, planning, decision-making, allocation of resources and formulation and enforcement of fishery regulations by which the fishery management authority controls the present and future behaviour of interested parties in the fisheries, in order to ensure the continued productivity of the living resources.
Fishery management plan	An explicit arrangement (contract) between the interested parties as defined above, and the fisheries management authority which makes explicit the objectives and means of management, the nature of the management authority, its powers and responsibilities, its working and consultation procedures, as well as the rights and responsibilities of the interested parties in the fishery.
Fishery management unit	A fishery or a portion of a fishery identified in a Fishery Management Plan (FMP) relevant to the FMP's management objectives. The choice of an FMU depends on the focus of the FMP's objectives, and may be organized around biological, geographic, economic, technical, social, or ecological perspectives.
Fishery policy	Measures by which a national and/or a provincial government attempts to influence or control the behaviour of individuals, companies and communities in the fisheries sector to achieve certain objectives. The measures can be of varied kinds including fiscal measures, (e.g. taxes, subsidies, public investments, etc.; trade measures (e.g. import and export duties; quotas); social measures (health and education services); regulations (i.e. on food quality; means and types of fish harvesting; ITQs;) and others.
Frame survey	A complete description of the structure of any system to be sampled for collection of statistics. In fisheries, it may include the inventory of ports, landing places, number and type of fishing units (boats and gears), and a description of fishing and landing activity patterns, fish distribution routes, processing and marketing patterns, supply centres for goods and services, etc.
Gear restriction	A type of input control used as a management tool whereby the amount and/or type of fishing gear used by fishers in a particular fishery is restricted by law.
Geographic information system (GIS)	A computer system for storage, analysis and retrieval of information, in which all data are spatially referenced by their geographic coordinates (north, east). In addition to primary data, such as climatic and soil characteristics, a GIS can be used to calculate derived values, such as erosion hazard, forest yield class, or land suitability for specified land-use types. Data are usually derived from maps and derived values can be printed out as maps.
GLM	A statistical procedure similar to an Analysis of Variance or a Multiple Regression that is used to estimate the magnitude of the effects of different factors on a variable of interest.
Government	The political direction and control exercised over actions of the members, citizens, or inhabitants of communities, societies, and states.
Household	All the persons, kin and non-kin, who live in the same dwelling and share income, expenses and daily subsistence tasks. A basic unit for socio-cultural and economic analysis, a household may consist of persons (sometimes one but generally two or more) living together and jointly making provision for food or other essentials elements of the livelihood.
Indicator	A variable, pointer, or index. Its fluctuation reveals the variations in key elements of a system. The position and trend of the indicator in relation to reference points or values indicate the present state and dynamics of the system. Indicators provide a bridge between objectives and action.
Information	Knowledge of a specific event or situation generated from data.
Input controls	Management instruments used to controls the time and place as well as type and/or amount of fishing with the view to limit yields and fishing mortality; e.g. restrictions on type and quantity of gear, effort, and capacity; closed seasons.
Institution	An organization founded for social purpose.
Landing site	Location at which boats land their catch.
Landings	Weight of the what is landed at a landing site. May be different from the catch (which includes the discards).
Legitimacy	Perception of conforming to established social rules or standards
Licensing	Restriction of the right to fish to those persons or vessels issued with licenses for the purpose.
Limited access	As used in fisheries, usually the same as harvester rights (see above) but sometimes used to include all controlled access to use of a natural resource, including full ownership. Also, limited entry.
Limit reference point	LRP indicates the limit beyond which the state of a fishery and/or a resource is not considered desirable.
Local management institution	A local organization founded for management purposes.
Logbook	A detailed, usually official record of a vessel's fishing activity registered systematically on board the fishing vessel, usually including information on catch and its species composition, the corresponding fishing effort and location. Completion of logbooks may be a compulsory requirement for a fishing licence.
Management objective	A formally established, more or less quantitative target that is actively sought and provides a direction for management action.
Management organization	An institution or arrangement established (usually between two or more States) to be responsible for activities related to fisheries management.
Management strategy	The strategy adopted by the management authority to reach established management goals. In addition to the objectives, it includes choices regarding all or some of the following: access rights and allocation of resources to stakeholders, controls on inputs (e.g. fishing capacity, gear regulations), outputs (e.g. quotas, minimum size at landing), and fishing operations (e.g. calendar, closed areas and seasons).
Markets	A collection of buyers and sellers who interact, resulting in the exchange of goods and services.
Maximum sustainable yield	The highest theoretical equilibrium yield that can be continuously taken (on average) from a stock under existing (average) environmental conditions without affecting significantly the reproduction process. Also referred to sometimes as Potential yield .
Member States	States that are members of an international organization or arrangement.
Model	A simplified representation of a limited part of reality with related elements.
Modelling	The construction of physical, conceptual or mathematical simulations of the real world.
Monitoring	The collection of information for the purpose of assessment of the progress and success of a land-use plan. Monitoring is used for the purpose of assessing performance of a management plan or compliance scheme and revising them or to gather experience for future plans.
Natural resources	Any portion of the natural environment, such as air, water, soil, botanical and zoological resources, and minerals.
Nominal catch	The sum of the catches that are landed (expressed as live weight equivalent). Nominal catches do not include unreported discards
Objective	Expresses the object of an action or what is intended to be achieved
Open access	A condition of a fishery in which anyone who wishes to fish may do so.
Opportunity cost	Defined as the benefit foregone by using a scarce resource for one purpose instead of its next best alternative.
Parameter	A “constant”or numerical description of some property of a population (which may be real or imaginary).
Performance	Accomplishment; fulfilment; functioning, usually with regard to effectiveness. Indicators of performance will be interpreted in relation to reference points and objectives.
Population	A group of interbreeding organisms that represents the level of organization at which speciation begins.
Precautionary approach	Set of measures taken to implement the Precautionary principle. A set of agreed cost-effective measures and actions, including future courses of action, which ensures prudent foresight, reduces or avoids risk to the resource, the environment, and the people, to the extent possible, taking explicitly into account existing uncertainties and the potential consequences of being wrong”.
Primary production	The rate at which energy is stored (i.e. the amount of energy fixed in a given time) by photosynthetic and chemosynthetic activity of producer organisms (chiefly green plants) in the form of organisms substances which can be used as food materials). Values are expressed in grams of dry organic matter (or carbon) produces per square meter per day.
Production	The total output especially of a commodity or an industry.
Recruitment	The number of fish added to the exploitable stock, in the fishing area, each year, through a process of growth (i.e. the fish grows to a size where it becomes catchable) or migration (i.e. the fish moves into the fishing area).
Reference point	A reference point indicates a particular state of a fishery indicator corresponding to a situation considered as desirable (Target reference point, TRP) or undesirable and requiring immediate action (Limit reference point, LRP, and Threshold reference point, ThRP).
Risk	In general, the possibility of something undesirable happening, of harm or loss. A danger or a hazard. A factor, thing, element, or course involving some uncertain danger.
Rent	In a fishery, difference between the total revenues obtained from the fishery resource and the total costs of production , i.e. capital and labour valued at their opportunity costs (see Opportunity costs).
Sampling design	The sampling design of a scientific survey refers to the statistical techniques and methods adopted for selecting a sample and obtaining estimates of the survey variables from the selected sample.
Selectivity	Ability to target and capture fish by size and species during harvesting operations, allowing by-catch of juvenile fish and non-target species to escape unharmed. In stock assessment, conventionally expressed as a relationship between retention and size (or age) with no reference to survival after escapement.
Single-species model	A model describing the dynamics of a species which does not explicitly incorporate the effects of interactions with other species.
Size limit	A minimum or maximum limit on the size of fish that may be legally be caught.
Socio-economic	Pertaining to the combination or interaction of social and economic factors and involves topics such as distributional issues, labor market structure, social and opportunity costs, community dynamics, and decision-making processes.
Spawning stock	Mature part of a stock responsible for the reproduction.
Species	Group of animals or plants having common characteristics, able to breed together to produce fertile (capable of reproducing) offspring, and maintaining their “separateness”from other groups.
Species diversity	The variety of species in a community, which can be expressed quantitatively in ways which reflect both the total number of species present and the extent to which the system is dominated by a small number of species.
Species richness	Species richness/abundance is the distribution of the number of species and the number of individuals of each species in a community.
Stakeholder	A large group of individuals and groups of individuals (including governmental and non-governmental institutions, traditional communities, universities, research institutions, development agencies and banks, donors, etc.) with an interest or claim (whether stated or implied) which has the potential of being impacted by or having an impact on a given project and its objectives. Stakeholder groups that have a direct or indirect “stake”can be at the household, community, local, regional, national, or international level.
Statistic	The estimate of a parameter which is obtained by observation, and which in general is subject to sampling error.
Straddling stock	Stock which occurs both within the EEZ and in an area beyond and adjacent to EEZ.
Surplus production model	Mathematical representation of the way a stock of fish responds to the removal of its individuals (for example by fishing). In fisheries, usually represented by a relationship between yield and/or cpue, and fishing effort or mortality.
Survey design	The overall survey design of a probability survey refers to the definitions and the established methods and procedures concerning all phases needed for conducting the survey: the sample design, the selection and training of personnel, the logistics involved in the management of the field force and the distribution and receipt of survey questionnaires and forms, and the procedures for data collection, processing and analysis.
Top-down management	A process of management in which management information and decisions are centralized and resource users are kept outside the decision-making process.
Traditional rights	Rights of indigenous or traditional people which (to present) have not been considered in a national and international context or have not (yet) been recorded, and which are based on the legal system of the individual cultures.
Uncertainty	The estimated amount (or percentage) by which an observed or calculated value may differ from the true value.
Utility	The level of satisfaction that a person gets from consuming a good or undertaking an activity.
User	The term includes a commercial, recreational and indigenous fisher; fish watcher (scuba diver) and a member of the community.
Variable	Anything changeable. A quantity that varies or may vary. Part of a mathematical expression that may assume any value.
Variable costs	Costs that vary with the rate of output.
Yield-per-recruit	The expected lifetime yield per fish recruited in the stock at a specific age. Depends on the exploitation pattern (fishing mortality at age) or fishing regime (effort, size at first capture) and natural mortality.