FAO Fishing Areas

For statistical purposes, 27 major fishing areas have been internationally established to date.
These comprise:
- 8 major inland fishing areas covering the inland waters of the continents,
- 19 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 listed below by two-digit codes and their names. To access maps and description of boundaries of each fishing area click on the relevant item in the list below or in the map showing the 19 major marine fishing areas.

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 assigned to the fishing area "Asia - Inland waters") and Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Ukraine (statistics assigned to the fishing area "Europe - Inland waters").