Boarfish surveys have been carried out on commercial fishing vessels as part of an industry/science partnership. Boarfish surveys have taken place in the Celtic Seas around Ireland including the North Atlantic Ocean. They have taken place each July and have been collected since 2011. Outside of the spawning season many pelagic species were generally very scattered over a large geographical area and difficult to detect using acoustic methods. A cruise track was first formulated with data from previous surveys, commercial catch data and the help of the fishermen and fishing industry. Acoustic surveys for boarfish have been generally carried out on spawning and pre-spawning aggregations of boarfish to ascertain the abundance and distribution of the target species. Boarfish are the newest species surveyed by Fisheries Ecosystem Advisory Services of the Marine Institute (Ireland). Data is 100% complete for the survey years since 2011.

Acoustic surveys have been generally carried out on spawning and pre-spawning aggregations of fish. Outside of the spawning season many pelagic species have been generally very scattered over a large geographical area and difficult to detect using acoustic methods. A cruise track was first formulated with data from previous surveys, commercial catch data and the help of the fishermen and fishing industry. This is the spatial dataset of the acoustic survey haul station locations undertaken during surveys. Acoustic surveys have taken place in the North Atlantic Ocean between Donegal and the west coast of Scotland; and in the Celtic Sea off the south coast of Ireland. Acoustic surveys have taken place on an annual frequency since 1999. Acoustic survey in fishing is one of the research methods that can detect the abundance of target species using acoustic detectors. For example, many pelagic fisheries are generally very scattered over a broad ocean and difficult to detect. Hence survey vessel with acoustic detector emits sound waves to estimate the density of plankton and fish shoal. Generally, the transducer is put under water, which is linked to an echo sounder in the vessel which records the shoals of fish as marks on a screen or paper trace. Then the density and number of marks are converted into biomass. Survey shot and haul stations have been based on acoustic survey data. The aim of an acoustic survey has been to determine the relative abundance of the target species. This information has been then used to determine catch rates and management advice for the following year. Acoustic surveys have been managed by the fisheries science section of the Marine Institute known as Fisheries Ecosystem Advisory Services who coordinated the annual surveys on board the research vessel Celtic Explorer. Data is considered a complete record of stations including only those stations between 1999 and 2009 as published on Irelands Marine Atlas.

Catch weights data from a bottom trawl survey series: Trawl positions, duration and gear parameters; catch weights of the target species; length frequency distributions; age, sex and maturity. The target species are: cod, haddock, whiting, saithe, hake, black and white-bellied anglerfish, megrim, plaice, sole, herring, blue whiting, mackerel, horse mackerel, blonde ray, cuckoo ray, spotted ray and thornback ray. Data coverage is for the waters around Ireland from 10m to 180m in depth (Irish Sea, Celtic Sea, West and North of Ireland). The spatial coverage varied from year-to year. The sampling locations were selected from known fishing tracks while trying to ensure maximum spatial spread over the survey area. The surveys took place in February-March of 2004-2009. Samples were collected using a GOV bottom trawl (a scaled-down version of the IBTS standard, see: Manual for the International Bottom Trawl Surveys, ICES Survey Protocols SISP 1-IBTS VIII). The main purpose of the survey was to collect information on the length and age at which target species first reach maturity in the waters around Ireland. The surveys were carried out by the Marine Institute (Ireland) Fisheries Science team. All data collected on the survey are available.

Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) automatically collect positional data from fishing vessels. The VMS data can be linked to catch data from logbooks to provide a census of spatially resolved catch and effort data. Fishing method data includes all gears, mobile bottom, mobile other, mobile seine and passive.

Demersal discards atlas provides information on discarding patterns by species and area by the various Irish demersal fleets. A number of potential technical measures to reduce discards are shown as well as two case studies showing the potential impact technical measures have on landings and discards. This Atlas represents a first attempt at auditing Irish fisheries and proposes some options to mitigate discards. It should be emphasised that discarding occurs in all international fleets operating in the waters around Ireland and that mitigation measures must be applied to all these fleets if we are to implement a successful discard reduction policy. Demersal discards in marine waters around Ireland include North Atlantic Ocean, Celtic Sea and Irish Sea. The data has been collected between 1995 and 2009. The demersal catch sampling programme conducted by the Marine Institute (MI) was carried out using a combination of port based and at sea sampling methods. Previous programmes have been carried out since the early 1960’s, but the focus was on port sampling only (i.e. landings). The combined port and sea based sampling programme (catch) commenced in 1993 and has one of the longest time series of discard data in Europe. The purpose of this Atlas was to present the scientific observations on discarding by the Irish Demersal fleet. Data collection and interpretation undertaken jointly by the Marine Institute (MI) and Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM). Data is considered a complete discards review for the time period covered.

The purpose of the atlas is to communicate the key results from the Irish Groundfish Survey programme which is carried out annually in the waters around Ireland, and the Deepwater Survey programme conducted 2006-2009. Data is presented in a concise, visual and non technical format and provides an overview of the distribution and abundance of adult and juvenile fish species in Irish waters. Atlas is aimed at those involved in fisheries, environmental policy and management, the fishing industry, environmental Non Government Organisations (NGOs), scientists and the general public. More technical details on the data and analysis is described within the Atlas. Quality information is available in the full metadata lineage.

The data indicates the location of net fishing activity in Irish waters. Attributes when known include year, area, gear type, species, season, days per year (Days_Year), number of vessels (Vessels), vessel size (LOA_Max), gear units, classification, Area of polygon (Area_M2), and data type. This dataset was created in support of the Natura 2000 risk assessment in 2013. Please note that this dataset represents net fishing acitivty of vessels <15 metres length in Irish waters.