Toward a better use of fisheries data in spatial planning

Abstract

In the search for protecting biodiversity, enhancing sustainable resource use, and minimizing conflict among users, spatial planning is now ubiquitous around the globe.Acquiring maps of fishing activity is critical to account for the interests of fishers, but fisheries are generally underrepresented in spatial plans. We conducted a quantitative systematic literature review on how fisheries data have been included in spatial planning. 145 research articles were reviewed. Most studies (99%) assessed marine ecosystems. A kaleidoscope of data sources has been used to map fisheries, from vessel tracking data (11%) to surrogates (17%). Most articles (43%) have focused on mapping fishing effort, but other variables might be more relevant for spatial planning. Stakeholder groups are generally aggregated together (84%), but to achieve socially equitable outcomes, differences in relative importance or vulnerability should be included in the analyses. There ought to be a shift in spatial and temporal scale so that the scale in which fishing activity is recorded matches the scales needed for relevant management. At the planning stage, fishing data have been incorporated mostly to avoid conflict (97%). However, when stocks are overfished, ensuring some areas remain open to fishing and including fisheries in alternative ways to "cost" (which incorporates the economic and social impact of spatial closures) might be necessary.The use of inappropriate fisheries data has produced spatial plans that lead to poor management decisions, social conflict, and lack of compliance. Based on these results, we offer a set of suggestions on how to develop fisheries spatial planning research that will promote environmental and social sustainability.

Linking real world fisheries datasets for mapping of revenue from fishing grounds to dependent communities

“…The analysis presented here, however, incorporates only 1 year of data and represents only a snapshot. Long-term patterns of fishing activity should be assessed for using this information in drafting robust spatial plans and management decisions (Chollett et al in 2022).…”

“…When revenue, effort, and catch information are all available, revenue measures are generally preferred as a metric for depicting the relative importance of an area for fishing, because effort measures cannot gauge how effective vessels and gears are at capturing fish, and catch measures fail to capture the difference in value across species (Jin et al 2013). In any case, the variable used should match closely the management objectives to ensure the ecological and/or social sustainability of the resulting plan (Chollett et al 2022). For example, when planning for offshore wind areas, Bastardie et al (2015) found fishing effort to be the most relevant variable to use to ensure social sustainability.…”

“…A review of the literature on mapping fisheries for spatial planning found that almost half of published studies quantified fishing effort, whereas only 13% mapped revenue (Chollett et al 2022). From those 13%, only half used VMS data to spatially locate fishing sites and map revenue.…”

Deep Learning-Based Fishing Ground Prediction Using Asymmetric Spatiotemporal Scales: A Case Study of Ommastrephes bartramii

“…In studies concerning spatial distribution relationships, a critical aspect that needs to be addressed is the rational planning of spatiotemporal scales [22]. In different application scenarios, the optimal spatiotemporal scales for different model outcomes may vary [23].…”