Fisheries Data Archive Centre

The 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.

Currently, FishDAC has data from England, Wales and Scotland. In time, data from Northern Ireland will be included.

There are four categories of data in FishDAC:

fish and shellfish surveys
fisheries data
fisheries statistics, including census data and landings effort
fish and shellfish research data.

FishDAC has prioritised EU-mandated fish surveys that are part of established series. It contains data collected by UK research vessels on the most recent international bottom trawl surveys, covering significant geographical areas, species and environments.

Fish and shellfish research data includes tags, charter vessel cruise data and by the Scottish Industry/Science Partnership.

Future additions to FishDAC will include other research surveys; market sampling and observer schemes; data gleaned from physical samples such otoliths, scales and plankton; aquaculture and other related environmental data.

Currently available datasets

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

Cefas, UK, 2007-2009. ARC-GIS layer showing Inshore Fishing Effort as determined from fishing vessel sightings:

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.

Details about 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.

Under the INSPIRE Directive and the UK's Open Access agenda, we are working towards publishing publicly owned datasets and make other data available on request. In future, our data holdings will be accessible through a "view-and-download" service.

Relevant Cefas holdings and release timescale

FishDAC includes significant subsets of data that are routinely provided to international bodies (e.g. ICES). These bodies may make the data available and provide access to raw data or links to quality-assured subsets of data.

The Cefas component of FishDAC is a prioritised subset of the items listed in the following table, with additional specific infrastructure as required by MEDIN. For example, "parent" metadata entries describe a series and "child" entries describe individual datasets within a series.

Once FishDAC is more fully established other Cefas datasets, databases and systems - which have existing dissemination routes or active restrictions - will be reviewed in terms of their potential dissemination via FishDAC.

Notes to the table:
¹ Conditional on the completion of a "view-and-download" service
² Planned as part of the Data Management in Cefas project

Category/item	Storage	Data access	Release plan
VIId and IVc beam trawl survey	Cefas Fishing Survey (FSS) database	DATRAS website	Available
North Sea Q3 groundfish survey - IBTS	FSS database	DATRAS website	Available
Irish Sea and Bristol Channel beam trawl survey	FSS database	DATRAS website	Available
Fish spawning and nursery areas	Data files	FishDAC pages	Available
Fish stomach contents records	Stomach contents database(DAPSTOM)	FishDAC pages	Available
Other main Cefas fishing surveys	FSS database	FishDAC pages	During 2013¹
GIS of shellfish waters, and classification zones	Maps	FishDAC pages	During 2013¹
Selected Fisheries Science Partnership (FSP)surveys	FSS database	FishDAC pages	During 2013¹
Highly mobile fish species distributions in UK waters	Maps	FishDAC pages	During 2013¹
Survey indices for fish stock assessment	Spreadsheet and CSV files	FishDAC pages	During 2013¹
Port Erin Marine Lab data and samples	Spreadsheet; otoliths and scales	FishDAC pages and at Cefas' Lowestoft lab	During 2013¹
Fish stock summaries	Spreadsheet and PDF	FishDAC pages	During 2013¹
Localised fishing surveys	FSS database	FishDAC pages	During 2013¹and later²
Tagged fish "release and recapture" data	Cefas Tagged Fish database	FishDAC pages	During 2013¹and later²
Historic fishing surveys	Paper records	Cefas' Lowestoft lab	Later²
Other historic logbook data	Paper records	Cefas' Lowestoft lab	Later²
Remaining FSP surveys	FSS database	FishDAC pages	Later²
Fish egg and plankton surveys	Plankton databases	FishDAC pages	Later²
Annual data files for commercial fish and shellfish stocks	Spreadsheet and PDF	FishDAC pages	Later²
Marine fish and shellfish tagging studies	Various	FishDAC pages	Later²
Freshwater fish tagging and telemetry studies	Various	FishDAC pages	Later²
UK commercial fishery landings, value and effort	Web pages	FishDAC pages	Later²
Shellfish studies	Various	FishDAC pages	Later²
Migratory species studies	Various	FishDAC pages	Later²
Cefas otolith and scale collection	Various	FishDAC pages and at Cefas' Lowestoft lab	Later²
UK recreational sea angling activities data	Various	FishDAC pages	Later²