| The MARIN group has performed
several analyses of commercial fishing in the past several
years. The group’s primary source of East Coast commercial
fishing traffic data is
ZIF
(Zonal Interchange Format) information, obtained from each
of the Laurentian, Gulf, Scotia-Fundy and Newfoundland regions.
The ZIF
data contains information about number of landed fish in
each port, and the general catch location. West Coast fishing
data has been similarly acquired.
Traffic data is modelled from these records using
dispersion
and track
generation algorithms in MARIS
to simulate the trips between port and the general fishing
area. Fishing incidents are extracted from
SISAR
for commercial fishing, as they have been for the numerous
other maritime traffic datasets.
For maritime
risk analysis,
it is useful to examine
the distribution of the fishing activity, as shown by
the blue circles. The size of the blue circles shown in
all of the NAFO
fishing
sub-divisions is proportional to the amount
of exposure reflected by the presence of fishing vessels.
In this particular view, the fishing traffic is aggregated
over an entire year, but can also be portrayed for other
time periods, such as monthly.
|
Commercial Fishing Analysis
