Generating new data on inshore fishing

Ronán Cosgrove and Elizabeth Tray from the BIM Fisheries Conservation team outline a new project that enables under 12 m vessel owners to provide key information on their fisheries for marine spatial planning.

BIM has developed a new fisheries participatory mapping approach which combines face-to-face interviews with skippers, a new marine ‘spray-can’ computer application with detailed marine features, and vessel chart plotters to capture and validate fisheries activities. The study has enabled under 12 m vessel owners operating in the South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) for offshore wind to provide new information on their activities for marine spatial planning.

Participatory mapping is a practice, through which citizens can communicate their spatial thoughts, feelings, or knowledge in support of specific research aims or decision-making goals, using mapping techniques. It was developed as a way of empowering citizens by incorporating nuanced knowledge into the decision-making process and enhancing opportunities for democracy within communities.

The fisheries mapping application was conceptualised by Elizabeth Tray and developed in collaboration with Professor Jonny Huck, an expert in participatory mapping and geographic information systems from the University of Manchester. The application contains an interactive interface with admiralty charts which allowed participants to ‘spray’ their fishing locations using a mouse or touch pad. Where possible, these data were validated in real time using vessel plotters with fishing locations.

Elizabeth and BIM regional officers, John Hickey and Sean Daly, interviewed 78 skippers on board their vessels at their home ports along the south coast during summer 2024. They recorded a total of 244 yearly fishing activities corresponding to 22,700 fishing days in 11 key fisheries mainly conducted in 2024.

Lobster, crab and shrimp potting were the three main fisheries accounting for 78% of the total days fished with a range of other fisheries also operating in the area. Most fishing was concentrated relatively close to the coast but there were also important fishing grounds further offshore across the study area.

In relation to the proposed offshore wind locations, Maritime area A had the greatest number of fishing days, followed by B, then C with no fishing recorded in area D.  A statistical analysis of the validations scores which included vessels with and without plotters showed a high-level of confidence in data across most of the study area.

Seasonally, the number of total fishing days gradually increased in the summer months before peaking in September and reducing to a lower level in winter months. The lobster fishery mainly occurred during summer months while the crab fishery occurred slightly later, during the autumn. The shrimp fishery, midwater-trawling for sprat, and gillnetting occurred mainly during winter months. Whelk potting primarily occurred in spring while remaining fisheries were mostly concentrated in summer months.

Combined fisheries maps and associated data are immediately available for marine spatial planning purposes. Outputs were submitted to the Eirgrid consultation on land-fall routes from the maritime areas which concluded in January 2025. There will also be opportunities to include these outputs in future planning submissions as acknowledged by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) in the South Coast DMAP.

It is important to acknowledge that the owners of 27% of targeted vessels did not participate in the project. These vessel owners should still be considered in the planning process through direct engagement by offshore wind developers and/or by other means.

In addition to offshore wind, this new mapping approach has major potential to enable under 12 m vessel owners demonstrate their activities in relation to proposed marine protected areas. Ongoing engagement with the fishing industry, government departments, offshore wind developers and other relevant parties will be key to ensuring participatory mapping data are effectively used in marine spatial planning decisions.

BIM would like to sincerely thank the vessel owners who participated in the study, the South East Regional Inshore Fisheries Forum for engaging and supporting the project, and several other parties listed in the full report. For use of the admiralty charts we acknowledge © Crown Copyright and/or database rights – reproduced by permission of the Keeper of Public Records and the UK Hydrographic Office (www.ukho.gov.uk/copyright). This work was funded by the Irish Government and part-financed by the European Union through the EMFAF Operational Programme 2021 – 2027.  A full report is available here.