Inland Fisheries

1.2.2. FAO’s world major fishing areas

The term "Inland Waters" may be used to refer to lakes, rivers, brooks, streams, ponds, inland canals, dams, and other land-locked (usually freshwater) waters (such as the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea, etc.). For statistical purposes, 27 major fishing areas have been internationally established to date by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Rome. These comprise eight major inland fishing areas covering the inland waters of the continents, nineteen major marine fishing areas covering the waters of the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern Oceans, with their adjacent seas. The major fishing areas, inland and marine, are identified by their names and by two-digit codes.

(Source : FAO, 2010)

The world major inland fishing areas are as below:

1. Africa (Fishing Area – 01)
2. North America (Fishing Area – 02)
3. South America (Fishing Area – 03)
4. Asia (Fishing Area – 04)
5. Europe (Fishing Area – 05)
6. Oceania (Fishing Area – 06)
7. Former USSR *(Fishing Area – 07)
8. Antarctica - inland waters (Fishing Area – 08)

The fishing area 07 ("Former USSR area - Inland waters") referred to the area that was formerly the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Starting with the data for 1988, information for each new independent Republic is shown separately. The new independent Republics are: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan (statistics are assigned to the fishing area "Asia - Inland waters") and Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Ukraine (statistics are assigned to the fishing area "Europe - Inland waters").