ICCAT·CICTA·CICAA

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas is responsible for the conservation of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas (Convention Area). To support this mission, ICCAT employs a Geographic Information System (GIS) to collect, store, analyze, and visualize geographic data related to these species. This system enhances the understanding of the distribution, habitat, and migratory patterns of tunas and other highly migratory species in the Atlantic, enabling more informed decision-making for the management and conservation of marine resources.

The geographic boundaries of the Convention Area, including its sub-areas, sampling areas, stock areas, and management areas as currently defined for each species (described here), are available as layers for analysis and visualization. These layers(1) are exported in geopackage (2) file format, making them easily accessible through any GIS tool, including those distributed as free software, such as QGIS .
Licensing & Terms of Use: All layers included in ICCAT_gis.gpkg are under license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 IGO , and therefore should be used accordingly.

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List of layers included in the geopackage (ICCAT_gis.gpkg)

ICCAT Area and subareas

Layer name	Description	Click on the map to preview
Area ICCAT	Geographical definition of the area managed by ICCAT for the conservation of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas (Convention Area).
Subareas ICCAT	Geographical definition of the subareas.

ICCAT Stocks/Management Units

Layer name	Description	Click on the map to preview
Albacore tuna stock areas	ALB / Albacore tuna / Thunnus alalunga ICCAT stock areas
Bigeye tuna stock areas	BET / Bigeye tuna / Thunnus obesus ICCAT stock areas
Skipjack tuna stock areas	SKJ / Skipjack tuna / Katsuwonus pelamis ICCAT stock areas
Yellowfin tuna stock areas	YFT / Yellowfin tuna / Thunnus albacares ICCAT stock areas
Atlantic bluefin tuna stock areas	BFT / Atlantic bluefin tuna / Thunnus thynnus ICCAT stock areas
Atlantic Sailfish stock areas	SAI / Atlantic sailfish / Istiophorus albicans ICCAT stock areas
Atlantic While Marlin stock areas	WHM / Atlantic white marlin / Tetrapturus albidus ICCAT stock areas
Blue marlin stock areas	BUM / Atlantic blue marlin / Makaira nigricans ICCAT stock areas
Swordfish stock areas	SWO / Swordfish / Xiphias gladius ICCAT stock areas
Longbill spearfish stock areas	SPF / Longbill spearfish / Tetraptrusu pfluegeri ICCAT stock areas
Other species stock areas	All the remainder ICCAT species included in the groups: - Major sharks - Small tuna (major sp.) - Other small tunas - Other tuna & tuna like - Other sharks - Rest of species in ICCAT list

ICCAT Sampling Areas

Layer name	Description	Click on the map to preview
Albacore tuna sampling areas	ALB / Albacore tuna / Thunnus alalunga ICCAT sampling areas
Atlantic bluefin tuna sampling areas	BFT / Atlantic bluefin tuna / Thunnus thynnus ICCAT sampling areas
Bigeye tuna sampling areas	BET / Bigeye tuna / Thunnus obesus ICCAT sampling areas
Skipjack tuna sampling areas	SKJ / Skipjack tuna / Katsuwoonus pelamis ICCAT sampling areas
Yellowfin tuna sampling area	YFT / Yellowfin tuna / Thunnus albacares ICCAT sampling areas
Billfish sampling areas	ICCAT sampling areas for the following species: • SWO / Swordfish / Xiphias gladius (stock code loaded into the stock_swo field). • BUM / Atlantic blue marlin / Makaira nigricans (stock code loaded into the stock_bum field). • WHM / Atlantic white marlin / Tetrapturus albidus (stock code loaded into the stock_whm field). • SAI / Atlantic sailfish / Istiophorus albicans (stock code loaded into the stock_sai field). • SPF / Longbill spearfish / Tetrapturus pfluegeri (stock code loaded into the stock_spf field). • Rest of species / Major sharks and small tunas (stock code loaded into the stock_oth field).

Standard grids

Layer name	Description	Click on the map to preview
Grid01x01	Regular grids of 1 deg x 1 deg resolution overlapping with the ICCAT area.
Grid05x05	Regular grids of 5 deg x 5 deg resolution overlapping with the ICCAT area.

(1) All layers inside of gpkg have been created with these characteristics:
• The adopted coastline has been extracted from the UN_CONTINENT2_NEW layer as available on the FAO GeoServer (based on United Nations geospatial Clear Map).
• The regular grid coding system follows the rules defined by the FAO Coordinating Working Party on fishery statistics (CWP).
• The spacial reference identifier (SRID) is EPSG 4326 - WGS 84.

(2): Geopackage (https://www.geopackage.org/) is an open, standards-based, platform-independent, portable, self-describing, compact format for transferring geospatial information.