DOI: 10.14466/CefasDataHub.177

Description

These data are a gridded data product delineating annual estimated fishing effort from vessel data available Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) only as well as joined VMS and Automatic Identification System (AIS) data interpolated to have vessel positional data for every 20 minutes for vessels active in the UK Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) separately generated for eight gear groups. Although the data mainly contains information on vessels with length above 12m, fishing effort of some parts of the inshore fleet and international vessels are included where data were available. Grid cells in which 3 or less vessels were fishing are suppressed to acknowledge commercial sensitivity of the information.

Vessels using VMS data and AIS data were identified, available VMS (only) as well as VMS & AIS data interpolated to have vessel positional data for every 20 minute for each vessel. Depending on gear group, the fishing activity was identified and translated into fishing effort. A detailed description of the methods is published as T Mendo, A Mujal-Colilles, J Stounberg, G Glemarec, J Egekvist, E Mugerza, M Rufino, R Swift, M James, A workflow for standardizing the analysis of highly resolved vessel tracking data, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Volume 81, Issue 2, March 2024, Pages 390–401, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsad209 as well as in Mendo, T.; Ransijn, J.; Durbach, I. Gibson, T.; James, M.; Swift, R.; Muench, A. Identifying the recent spatial distribution of fishing activities in the UK EEZ – a report on methods used. Report produced for The Crown Estate, OWEC funded project: FiSMaDiM, 11 pages. Doi: https://doi.org/10.14465/2024.OWEC.003

Within the FiSMaDiM (Fisheries Sensitivity Mapping and Displacement Modelling) project, a method was developed to estimate fishing effort information derived from VMS (Vessel Monitoring System) data augmented by AIS (Automatic Identification System) data. Based on information provided by MMO (Marine Management Organisation), MCA (Maritime and Coastguard Agency), fleet register, global fishing watch and marine traffic, AIS (UK and non-UK-flagged vessels) data was added to augment information on fishing effort within the UK EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) as derived from VMS (only UK-flagged vessels) data provided by MMO.

Contributors

Mendo, Tania / Ransijn, Janneke / Durbach, Ian / Gibson, Thomas / James, Mark / Swift, Rene / Muench, Angela

Subject

Analysis / Human activity / Human impacts / Fisheries / Fishery characterisation / Modelling / Planning / Remote Sensing

Start Date

01/01/2012

End Date

31/12/2021

Year Published

2025

Version

1

Citation

Mendo et al. (2025). Fisheries Sensitivity Mapping and Displacement Modelling (FISMADIM) - Fishing effort data product - 2012 to 2021. Cefas, UK. V1. doi: https://doi.org/10.14466/CefasDataHub.177

Rights List

Open Government Licence

DOI

10.14466/CefasDataHub.177