Cefas Data Archive Centre
The Cefas Data Archive Centre holds and publishes a wide range of data covering marine and freshwater environments. The Centre archives and publishes the broadest range of specialist and diverse marine data given our work across Enabling Food Security, Safeguarding Human Health and Supporting Marine Economies (including Fisheries, Climate Change, Biodiversity, Pollution, Pathogens, Genomics and more).
The core location for all published data and metadata records is the Cefas Data Portal.
All data available from the Cefas Portal are made openly available under Open Government Licence and can be accessed via download and API links.
If you have any queries on Cefas' data, please contact data.manager@cefas.gov.uk
As one element of the Cefas Data Archive Centre, the Cefas Fisheries Data Archive Centre (FishDAC) contains fish, shellfish, fisheries and related samples data.
Part of the wider Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN), FishDAC's data is predominantly marine but covers transitional waters and migratory species.
Research survey data
Data from the following Cefas survey series is available through the DATRAS database on the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) website:
- North Sea international bottom trawl survey
- Eastern English Channel beam trawl survey
- Irish Sea and Bristol Channel beam trawl survey.
Fish stomach contents records
DAPSTOM is an ongoing integrated database for fish stomach contents records spanning the past 100 years.
Fish spawning and nursery areas
Fisheries Sensitivity Maps in British Waters report (Coull et al., 1998) (PDF, 3.1 MB), which includes maps of the main spawning grounds for 14 commercially important species.
GIS layers. Fisheries Sensitivity Maps in British Waters (ZIP, 12 MB) (Data layers)
More recently, Cefas scientists have undertaken additional analyses to complement the original maps: Spawning and nursery areas of fish of commercial and conservation importance (Technical Report 147) (PDF, 3 MB)
GIS layers. Spawning and nursery areas of fish of commercial and conservation importance (ZIP, 930 KB) (Data layers)
For more information and background please visit Cefas' archived website at The National Archives.
UK National Inshore Fishing Activities Data Layer
Fishing effort within 6 nm of the English and Welsh coast. Derived from sightings data from Cumbria, South Wales, Devon, Southern, Sussex, Kent and Essex, Eastern, North Eastern and Northumberland Sea Fisheries Committees, and sightings data provided by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). Fishing activities presented by type of fishing gear, vessel length and vessel power. Data from 2007 and 2009 and grided onto a 0.05 deg. in longitude and 0.025 deg. in latitude cells (approx. 5.5 by 5 km). For more details please see the Cefas report to Defra associated with this work.
FishDAC data
Cefas collects, manages and interprets environmental, biodiversity and fisheries data, samples and records. Many of these holdings are of historic importance, reflecting the state of UK fisheries from the early 20th century to the present day.
In general, the data describe:
- time and location (from ICES' rectangles to station to latitude/longitude)
- fishing gear used and fishing effort
- species caught and landed
- biological data: length, wet weight, sex and maturity.
The majority of these data are recorded at sea. More recent datasets have been gathered utilising our own Electronic Data Capture system.
Data collected at sea are transferred to shore-based databases. Additional data obtained in the laboratory are then included, e.g. dry weight, age, histological information, associated plankton data, etc. Selected data subsets are transferred to relevant ICES' databases, e.g. DATRAS.
Quality survey data is provided to ICES. Under their supervision, the DATRAS database holds all fisheries survey data funded by the EU Commission under its Data Collection Framework.
Survey manuals, describing the approach used when collecting the data held in DATRAS, are also available. Understanding precisely how data are collected can aid interpretation of that data.
There is an unrestricted data access policy applied to data submitted to DATRAS after 1 May 2006. Access to unrestricted data submitted prior to that date requires the agreement of the submitting country.
Aggregated data is freely available using the DATRAS "Data Products" facility, which is fairly. Further advice and support, however, is available from the DATRAS User Advisory Panel forum.
We hold and use the original data to support fisheries management decisions and our own research.
