Offshore Landings Distribution by Gear Type

Landings are defined as the part of the catch that is retained (not discarded) and landed. This dataset shows the distribution of landings by Irish vessels measured as average weight or value of landing per kilometre square, per year. Data from years 2014 to 2018 was used to produce this data for the Marine Institute publication the Atlas of Commercial Fisheries around Ireland, third edition (https://oar.marine.ie/handle/10793/1432).

This dataset is derived from the following 2 primary data types - data on vessel positioning and data on landings and gear types used: Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) is supplied by the Irish Naval Service. VMS data provided geographical position and speed of vessel at intervals of two hours or less (Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2244/2003). VMS do not record whether a vessel is fishing, steaming or inactive.

Logbooks collected by the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority and supplied by the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine were the primary data source for information on landings and gear types used by Irish vessels. The fishing gear data was classified into eight main groups: demersal otter trawls; beam trawls; demersal seines; gill and trammel nets; longlines; dredges; pots and pelagic trawls.

The VMS data was analysed using the approach described by Gerritsen and Lordan (IJMS 68(1)). The VMS points 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 recorded landings are averaged according to the number of active fishing points and assigned to the VMS positions where the vessel was actively fishing. The points are then aggregated into a spatial grid to produce a raster dataset showing landings (by weight (kg) or value (€)) per kilometre square per year for each gear type group.