Description: These data represent estimated commercial fishing activity from vessel monitoring system (VMS) data, for 2010 to 2022, for the United States West Coast. The analysis units are 1-minute grids (~1.8 km or 1 nm). VMS data are provided by NMFS office of Law Enforcement and compiled by PacFIN in 'Comprehensive VMS', a derived data product produced by PacFIN. Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) summarized the data using methods developed by CalPoly and BOEM (Wang, et al., in press), based on VMS Declaration Codes and estimated fishing speeds. Summary methods follow those for the 2010-2017 VMS Summary by CalPoly and BOEM, and are based on VMS Declaration Codes and estimated fishing speeds.Fishing effort is summarized using available VMS data and declaration codes reported by vessel operators. Fishing effort is determined using a speed-based approach, where successive vessel positions meeting specified speed criteria are used to construct estimated fishing tracks. Vessel trip and fishing track IDs are generated in the PacFIN database by using the ‘Comprehensive VMS’ database table and applying the maximum fishing speeds associated with each declaration code as established by the CalPoly/BOEM study. Each consecutive record above speed 0 and below the maximum threshold becomes a “fishing track point”, from which the fishing tracks are created. Fishing tracks are summarized using a 1-minute grid system, with statistics calculated for each grid unit. Unique vessels are accounted for among summaries, including those associated with ‘grouped’ declaration codes. Groundfish trawl 'group' fishery:'Group' summary 5 individual declaration codes (Limited entry midwater trawl gear non-whiting shorebased IFQ: declaration code 220, Limited entry midwater trawl, Pacific whiting shorebased IFQ: 221, Limited entry midwater trawl, Pacific whiting catcher/processor sector: 222, Limited entry midwater trawl, Pacific whiting mothership sector - catcher vessel or mothership: 223, Limited entry bottom trawl, shorebased IFQ, not including demersal trawl: 230, and Limited entry demersal trawl, shorebased IFQ: 231). Maximum speeds for fishing activity: 220 = 4.94 kn, 221 = 4.45 kn, 222 = 4.71 kn, 223 = 4.65 kn, 230 = 4.69 kn, 231 = 4.32 kn. Data have been filtered for confidentiality (3+ vessels). Filtering: Data are filtered for confidentiality and to remove grids intersecting ports, those outside the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and those with over 50% of the area on land. The data have also been filtered by average grid depth, with only those grids with depths above -1,500 meters included. Remaining data includes 58.3% (24,405/41,581) of grids/units and represents 97.8% of the track length.Metadata links: PDF/HTML/XML
Service Item Id: cbead11054014128bfbba3ac0ad436f2
Copyright Text: NMFS OLE; Center for Marine Sciences - California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; PSMFC; BOEM