For the purposes of the Convention:
| (a) | commercial fishing means all fishing operations, including fishing operations on rivers, lakes or canals, with the exception of subsistence fishing and recreational fishing; |
| (b) | competent authority means the minister, government department or other authority having power to issue and enforce regulations, orders or other instructions having the force of law in respect of the subject matter of the provision concerned; |
| (c) | consultation means consultation by the competent authority with the representative organizations of employers and workers concerned, and in particular the representative organizations of fishing vessel owners and fishers, where they exist; |
| (d) | fishing vessel owner means the owner of the fishing vessel or any other organization or person, such as the manager, agent or bareboat charterer, who has assumed the responsibility for the operation of the vessel from the owner and who, on assuming such responsibility, has agreed to take over the duties and responsibilities imposed on fishing vessel owners in accordance with the Convention, regardless of whether any other organization or person fulfils certain of the duties or responsibilities on behalf of the fishing vessel owner; |
| (e) | fisher means every person employed or engaged in any capacity or carrying out an occupation on board any fishing vessel, including persons working on board who are paid on the basis of a share of the catch but excluding pilots, naval personnel, other persons in the permanent service of a government, shore-based persons carrying out work aboard a fishing vessel and fisheries observers; |
| (f) | fisher’s work agreement means a contract of employment, articles of agreement or other similar arrangements, or any other contract governing a fisher’s living and working conditions on board a vessel; |
| (g) | fishing vessel or vessel means any ship or boat, of any nature whatsoever, irrespective of the form of ownership, used or intended to be used for the purpose of commercial fishing; |
| (h) | gross tonnage means the gross tonnage calculated in accordance with the tonnage measurement regulations contained in Annex I to the International Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships, 1969, or any instrument amending or replacing it; |
| (i) | length (L) shall be taken as 96 per cent of the total length on a waterline at 85 per cent of the least moulded depth measured from the keel line, or as the length from the foreside of the stem to the axis of the rudder stock on that waterline, if that be greater. In vessels designed with rake of keel, the waterline on which this length is measured shall be parallel to the designed waterline; |
| (j) | length overall (LOA) shall be taken as the distance in a straight line parallel to the designed waterline between the foremost point of the bow and the aftermost point of the stern; |
| (k) | recruitment and placement service means any person, company, institution, agency or other organization, in the public or the private sector, which is engaged in recruiting fishers on behalf of, or placing fishers with, fishing vessel owners; |
| (l) | skipper means the fisher having command of a fishing vessel. |
