Mapping EU fishing activities using ship tracking data

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel European-scale map of EU fishing activities derived from AIS ship tracking data, providing valuable insights for marine knowledge, policy, and fisheries science.

Contribution

First comprehensive map of EU fishing activities using AIS data, including a reliability measure of coverage reception capabilities.

Findings

Generated a density map of fishing activities across Europe

Provided a coverage reception capabilities map to assess data reliability

Enhanced understanding of spatial distribution of EU fishing efforts

Abstract

Information and understanding of fishing activities at sea are fundamental components of marine knowledge and maritime situational awareness. Such information is important to fisheries science, public authorities and policy makers. In this paper we introduce a first map at European scale of EU fishing activities extracted using Automatic Identification System (AIS) ship tracking data. The resulting map is a density of points that identify fishing activities. A measure of the reliability of such information is also presented as a map of coverage reception capabilities.