EMPHASIS ON HIGH-SEAS FLEET 



The authors have decided for the purposes of this study to define high-seas fishing vessels as vessels of 

 500-GRT or more. The authors decided to use this definition for analytical simplicity. Existing data sets, such as 

 those provided by Lloyd's, give worldwide fleet statistics based on the size, but not the deployment of vessels. The 

 authors have had to rely on such data sets because compiling comprehensive world-wide statistics from national 

 statistical reports was beyond the resources available for this study. The authors recognize, however, that small 

 coastal vessels can be shifted from one country to another. Many countries deploy vessels smaller than 500-GRT 

 on the high-seas. The authors, for example, were faced with the problem of not using statistics which identified 

 high-seas vessels in the 100- to 499-GRT range, because these vessels were below the 500-GRT cutoff point. 

 Alternatively, some countries deploy vessels larger than 500-GRT in coastal fisheries. The authors believe that 

 focusing on vessels of 500-GRT or more, from one respected source, provided an excellent picture of basic trends. 



In our study we have used the term "high-seas" to identify vessels over 500-GRT that fish beyond 200- 

 miles Exclusive Economic Zones. As indicated above, there are many vessels in the 100-GRT to 499-GRT that 

 can also fish on the high-seas or that fish thousands of miles from their home ports. In many cases we used the 

 term "distant-water" to identify fishing grounds far from home ports of various countries. Readers are cautioned 

 that there are a few instances where the terms overlap: vessels under 500-GRT fishing far beyond 200-miles and 

 vessels over 2,000-GRT fishing close to shore. The authors have attempted to identify "high-seas" versus "distant- 

 water" fisheries as much as possible, but there were a few cases where the authors simply did not have sufficient 

 information about certain vessels or fisheries. 



VI 



