AIMS

Ontologies

Please note that these ontologies are draft versions of the classification systems they represent. They have been created for the purposes of the NeOn project, have not been validated by the Fisheries and Aquaculture department and should not be used as official expressions of any of the classifications sytems modeled.

Click to enlarge This first set of ontologies is the cornerstone to build the network that would allow extracting, analyzing and aggregating data and information needed for the FSDAS. Most of these ontologies have been populated from Fisheries databases.

Land areas

This ontology organizes the FAO division areas for marine and inland waters, which are useful for statistical data collection and reporting. The division of water areas forms a strict and complete hierarchy.

Fishing areas

This ontology organizes the FAO division areas for marine and inland waters, which are useful for statistical data collection and reporting. The division of water areas forms a strict and complete hierarchy.

Biological entities

This ontology manages reference data about biological species needed for fisheries fact sheets and statistical information, among other resources. Species items are organized and maintained in the Aquatic Science and Fisheries Information System (ASFIS) and currently includes nearly 11.000 species items related to Fisheries and Aquaculture.

Fisheries commodities

Fisheries commodities cover products derived from any aquatic animal (fish, crustaceans, molluscs) as well as residues for commercial, industrial or subsistence uses; fished in inland, fresh and brackish waters, in inshore, offshore or high seas fishing areas.

Various classification systems are available for fisheries commodities: FAO's International Standard Statistical Classification of Fishery Commodities (ISSCFC) which is an expansion of the United Nations Standard International Trade Classification (SITC); and the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System maintained by theWorld Customs Organization (WCO).

The fisheries commodities ontology manages all information necessary to use these classifications together.

Vessel types and size

This ontology organizes the information necessary to assess fleet capacity and vessel main characteristics, such as its size or lenght. The ontology includes information form classifications used for vessel size, the Gross Register Tonnage (GRT), as defined by the Oslo Convention (1947); and the Gross Tonnage (GT) as defined by the 1969 London Convention.

Gear types

This ontology manages reference data about gear types needed for the fisheries fact sheets.

This ontology manages reference data about gear types needed for the fisheries fact sheets. The type of gear installed on a vessel determines the type of fish that it can catch and therefore it is often used to determine the fleet power. The main classification of gear types is the International Standard Statistical Classification of Fishing Gear (ISSCFG). Although this classification was initially designed to improve the compilation of harmonised catch and effort data and in fish stock assessment exercises, it has also been found to be very useful for fisheries technology, fishermen training and for the preparation of specialized catalogues on artisanal and industrial fishing methods.

Fisheries Fact sheets ontology

FAO publishes factsheets containing a large amount of information about fisheries. Factsheets are organized into domains such as Aquaculture species, Fishing equipment, and Gear type.

All fact sheets are XML documents, structured according to a comprehensive XML schema that includes all XML elements used in all types of fact sheets. Each domain corresponds to an element of the schema. A dictionary of the elements used in the schema is available online.

The schema makes use of existing standard element sets such as Dublin Core, Extended Dublin Core, AGMES and AIDA. It also incorporates existing international classification schemes for fisheries-related entities.