The FishMap Mon tool was redeveloped by Exegesis for Natural Resources Wales based upon ScotMap. The tool is an ArcGIS 9.3 map document that provides a series of forms and digitising tools that allow fishermen to draw fishing areas and enter the associated data. The data was stored in an ESRI Personal Geodatabase.

During this work the tool was further refined to capture:

• current and historical fishing areas
• hotspots
• migration routes
• nursery areas
• areas of conflict with other activities

In addition more detailed questions were added regarding the types of gear used by the fishermen, and functionality was added so that fishermen could rank the fishing areas and provide details on economic importance.

Further information from Claire Lush.

Cefas have a responsibility to monitor the intensity of fishing activity. Data was collected using monitoring patrols that record any sightings of fishing vessels. To remove any observation bias from the sightings, GPS data was also collected showing the route followed by the patrol vessel. Cefas had an existing manual process that was used by a specialist to import the GPS tracks and vessel sightings from the Cefas monitoring vessels and undertake the analysis of standardised fishing effort in MapInfo.

The objective for this project was create a toolkit that would automate the processing steps so that non-technical users could undertake the analysis.

The specific aims of the Fishing Effort Toolkit were to:

• produce a simple tool that automated the process for end users
• allow users to configure the tool to use multiple
• import GPS track data used by the monitoring vessels
• import sighting data from standard spreadsheet
• allow batch import of vessel tracks and sightings
• standardise the calculations for each fisheries area
• provide the option to export vessel counts
• allow fishing effort to be analysed for one or multiple years
• assess confidence in the fishing effort score based on observation effort
• allow users to thematically map the outputs using pre-defined classifications

The Fishing Effort Toolkit was developed in MapBasic and added a custom menu to MapInfo that allowed users to configure the toolkit and undertake the required processing steps using user-friendly interfaces. The toolkit was optimised to use data from the preceding processing stage when available so that the processes could be run with minimal user input.

Further information from Claire Lush

The objective of this project was to summarise how the fisheries habitats developed during the CCW habitat sensitivity project (Hall et al., 2008) intersected with SACs, SAC features and fishing activity. This sets the fisheries sensitivity work in the context of the Habitats Directive.

The intention was to revise the boundaries of SAC features and the extent of fishing activity as additional information became available. A toolkit was required so that the analysis could be repeated whenever revisions were made to the source data. The tools were created as a series of MapBasic scripts which used existing SAC, SAC feature, habitat and activity layers to calculate the areas of each habitat and feature affected by fishing activity.

The outputs were to be used by CCW to determine whether sensitive habitats were subject to fishing activity and whether these situations occurred within SACs and SAC features. These outputs will allow staff to provide appropriate advice regarding planning applications, assist in the development of marine policy to protect sensitive habitats, provide a baseline to liaise with fishermen about where and how they fish and target management of SACs to areas which are potentially adversely affected by fishing activity.

Further information from Claire Lush.

The application is composed of a relational database holding the attribute data and a synchronised GIS layer in either ArcGIS or MapInfo format, with a standalone, shared .NET component providing the link between database and GIS. The .NET component uses an abstract, strongly typed ADO.NET layer to communicate with an arbitrary database backend, giving users a wide range of choices of backend database management systems (any OleDB or ODBC source as well as native support for Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and PostgreSQL).

The GIS layer is stored in TAB format on the MapInfo side. On the ESRI side, geodatabases (personal, file and SDE) as well as SHP files are supported. The intention is that the toolkit will be used by local records centres nationally.

Further information from Crispin Flower.