- Contracting Party
means the contracting parties to the Convention;
- data buoys
means floating devices, either drifting or anchored, that are deployed by governmental or recognised scientific organisations or entities for the purpose of electronically collecting environmental data, and not in support of fishing activities, and which have been notified to the IATTC Secretariat;
- FAD
means anchored, drifting, floating or submerged objects deployed or tracked by vessels, including through the use of radio or satellite buoys, for the purpose of aggregating target tuna species for purse seine fishing operations;
- large circle hook
means a hook with the point turned perpendicularly back to the shank to form a generally circular or oval shape, and the point of the hook not offset more than 10 degrees;
- longline
means a fishing gear which comprises a main line carrying numerous hooks on branch lines (snoods) of variable length and spacing depending on target species;
- observer
means a person who is authorised and certified by a Member State or Contracting Party to observe, monitor and collect information on board fishing vessels;
- operator
means the natural or legal person who operates or holds any undertaking carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of production, processing, marketing, distribution and retail chains of fisheries and aquaculture products;
- overlap area
means the area of overlapping competence between the IATTC and WCPFC geographical areas.
- purse seine
means any encircling net the bottom of which is drawn together by means of a purse line at the bottom of the net, which passes through a series of rings along the ground rope, enabling the net to be pursed and closed;
- Regional Vessel Register
means the vessel register of the IATTC;
- Resolution
means the binding measures adopted by the IATTC under Article VII of the Convention;
- SAC
means the Scientific Advisory Committee established under Article XI of the Convention;
- sealed wells
means any space on board a vessel, intended for the freezing, maintenance or storage of fish, access to which has been blocked to prevent its use for those purposes;
- shark lines
means individual lines attached to the float line or to the floats directly, and used to target sharks, as depicted in Figure 1 of Resolution C-16-05;
- the Agreement
means the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Programme (AIDCP);
- the Convention
means the Convention for the Strengthening of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission established by the 1949 Convention between the United States of America and the Republic of Costa Rica;
- the Convention area
means the geographical area to which the Convention applies as described in Article III of the Convention;
- transhipment
means the unloading of all or any fisheries products on board a vessel to another vessel;
- tropical tunas
means bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna and skipjack tuna;
- Union fishing vessel
means any vessel flying the flag of a Member State, used or intended for use for the purposes of commercial exploitation of fishery resources, including support vessels, fish processing vessels, vessels engaged in transhipment and carrier vessels equipped for the transportation of fishery products, except container vessels;
- WCPFC
means the Fisheries Commission for the Western and Central Pacific Ocean established under the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean;