Title of dataset | Pelagic Trawl Fishing Effort |
Narrative summary of dataset | This dataset shows the distribution of fishing effort by fishing vessels according to the gear type used. Fishing effort is defined as the time spent engaged in fishing operations or time spent at sea, this time may be multiplied by a measure of fishing capacity, e.g. engine power. In this dataset fishing effort is measured as average hours spent actively fishing per kilometre square, per year. Data from years 2014 to 2018 was used to produce this data product for the Marine Institute publication the “Atlas of Commercial Fisheries around Ireland, third edition“ (https://oar.marine.ie/handle/10793/1432). |
Summary of processing methodology | The VMS data was analysed using the approach described by Gerritsen and Lordan (IJMS 68(1)). This approach assigns effort to each of the VMS data points. The effort of a VMS data point is defined as the time interval since the previous data point. Next the data are filtered for fishing activity using speed criteria, vessels were assumed to be actively fishing if their speed fell within a certain range (depending on the fishing gear used). The points that remain are then aggregated into a spatial grid to produce a raster dataset showing fishing effort (in hours) per kilometre square per year for each gear type group. The data is available for all countries combined and for Irish vessels only. |
Supporting documentation | https://oar.marine.ie/handle/10793/1432 |
Start date | 2014-01-01 |
End date | 2018-12-31 |