Global Fishing Effort

Brief description

The data describes number of vessels, engine power, gross tonnage and fishing effort by year (1950-2017), targeted functional group, and fishing gear. Fishing effort estimates were derived from country-level fishing fleet capacity data publicly available, following the method described in Rousseau et al (2019; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1820344116) and methods improvement reported in Rousseau et al. (in prep). The data coverage is global, but estimates are given at the Exclusive Economic Zone-, Large Marine Ecosystem-, and Food Agriculture Organisation-level. The data was collected for a wide range of uses, including to inform global and regional marine ecosystem models and to understand the long-term evolution of fishing and its socio-ecological implications in the global ocean.

Lineage

Maintenance and Update Frequency: none-planned

Statement: The fishing fleet data of 167 countries and dependencies was collected using a combination of FAO data, governmental data, and scientific and grey literature. Data points were separated into sector (artisanal motorized or unmotorized, industrial) and extrapolated using logistic-based specific GAM functions. Reconstructed time series of fleet were allocated to length of boat, gears, gross tonnage and engine power based on available data and specific time series. Motor equivalency was given to unmotorized vessels based on comparable efficiency (CPUE) of artisanal motorized fleet. Capacity (number of vessels) was converted to effort using average days at sea (Anticamara et al. 2011). Capacity was linked to mapped catch (Watson, 2017) using gears and functional groups, which served as a base for mapping the effort along 0.5 deg cells. Mapped effort was compared to available AIS data (Kroodsma et al., 2018) to convert fishing days to fishing hours).

A range of files are available:

## Folder "effort_mapped"
Contains yearly tables for the gridded (0.5 deg cell) effort. Years are NOT included in files due to size, but in filenames
Filenames as follow: mapped_YEAR_S.csv
S can be APW, UP, or I, and refers to the fishing sector (Artisanal powered, artisanal unpowered, industrial).
Each row is one fishing effort event (effort by fishing country, vessel length category, gear type, functional group targetted, year and sector)
The effort is in kW x days at sea, can be converted to fishing hours using "ConversionFishingHours.csv"

## Folder "effort_mapped_country"
Contains country tables for the gridded (0.5 deg cell) effort. Years span 1950-2017, as appropriate.
Filenames as follow: mapped_SAUP.csv
SAUP is the Fishing Country Code. Conversion file attached (SAUPtoCountry.csv).
Each row is one fishing effort event (effort by fishing country, vessel length category, gear type, functional group targetted, year and sector)
The effort is in kW x days at sea, can be converted to fishing hours using "ConversionFishingHours.csv"

## aggregated files:
# Gridded files
GriddedEffortby_FGroup_FishingCountry_Sector.csv: aggregation of the effort (including fishing hours) by functional group, fishing country, sector, year and cell (latitude/longitude).
GriddedEffortby_FishingCountry.csv: aggregation of the effort (including fishing hours) by fishing country, year and cell (latitude/longitude).
GriddedEffortby_Fgroup.csv: aggregation of the effort (including fishing hours) by functional group, year and cell (latitude/longitude).

# Total Files (no Grid)
TotalEffortby_FGroup_FishingCountry_Sector.csv: aggregation of the effort (including fishing hours) by functional group, fishing country, sector and year
TotalEffortby_FGroup_LME_Sector.csv: aggregation of the effort (including fishing hours) by functional group, sector, year and Large Marine Ecosystem
TotalEffortby_FGroup_EEZ_Sector.csv: aggregation of the effort (including fishing hours) by functional group, sector, year and EEZ
TotalEffortby_FishingCountry_LengthBoat_Gear_Sector.csv: aggregation of the effort (including fishing hours) by fishing country, sector, gear, length category and year
TotalEffortby_FGroup_FishingCountry_LengthBoat_Sector.csv: aggregation of the effort (including fishing hours) by fishing country, sector, functional group, length category and year

# Conversion files
ConversionFishingHours.csv: Conversion factors for the number of day at sea to fishing hours, per cell (latitude / longitude)
SAUPtoCountry.csv: Conversion SAUP code to fishing country (ISO3)
CellstoLME_EEZ: Large Marine Ecosystem and EEZ for each cel (latitude / longitude)