North Sea Historical Effort by Rectangle by Year: 1913 -1980

This dataset includes long-term, spatially detailed information on UK trawl and seine fishing effort in the North Sea, by year and ICES rectangle. The period covered is 1923–1980 excluding the years during and immediately after both World Wars. Effort data (number of hours fishing) are shown separately for each of the major historical demersal trawling and seining fleets of the UK: sailing trawlers (pre-WWII only), steam trawlers (until the 1970s), motor trawlers, steam seiners (pre-WWII only), and motor seiners.

These data were digitised from historical ‘Statistical Charts’ formerly produced by Cefas (then the Directorate of Fisheries Research [DFR]). For a catalogue providing a full description and metadata of the charts, including historical context, see Engelhard (2005). http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20150203151336/http:/www.cefas.defra.gov.uk/publications-and-data/scientific-series/technical-reports/technical-report-128.aspx

The gear used on all sailing trawlers was the wooden beam trawl. All steam and motor trawlers during the time period covered used otter trawls. The gears used on seiners were either ‘Danish seines’ or ‘Scottish seines.’ See the table below for an explanation of the variable names included in the dataset, which has been compiled as comma-delimited flatfile (*.csv) to facilitate long-term data storage and compatibility.