Technical Report 128
Catalogue of Defra historical catch and effort charts: six
decades of detailed spatial statistics for British fisheries
This report describes an inventory of over 37,000 unpublished
historical 'Statistical Charts' held at the Centre for Environment,
Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), Lowestoft, UK. These
charts provide annual and monthly fisheries statistics at a fine
spatial scale for the period 1913-81 (excluding both World Wars).
More specifically, they show the annual and monthly landings and
catch rates per fish species, and the fishing effort for various
components of the British commercial fishing fleet. These values
are indicated separately for each rectangle of 1° longitude by 30'
latitude (equivalent to ICES rectangles) as well as for the entire
area charted (generally equivalent to ICES fishing areas). The
largest subset of charts covers the North Sea (both pre- and
post-war years); smaller but still substantial subsets of charts
cover the Faroe Grounds, Iceland, West of Scotland and Rockall, the
Irish and Celtic Seas and English Channel (post-war years). The
focus is on demersal fisheries, with only a small
proportion of charts devoted to pelagic fisheries. Combined, this
set of 'Statistical Charts' provides consistent, standardised data
over a considerable time-span, for Britain's former and current
fishing grounds, covering an important portion of the fishing
history of this nation.