NAFO: Historical collection of annual fisheries catch statistics for flatfish in the Northwest Atlantic during the period 1893-1959

In 2013 the NAFO Secretariat produced a working paper 'A compilation of historical groundfish catch data from the NAFO Regulatory Area 1804-1959' (SCS 14-07). This report was based upon a literature review of documents.

The compiled records contained country, scientific name, NAFO fishing area, year and annual catch (metric tons). A nominal latitude and longitude were assigned to each record based upon the NAFO fishing areas definitions access through the Marine regions gazetteer www.marineregions.org

Nominal catches are landed weight, for instance gutted, heads-on fish converted to corresponding weight of round fresh fish. Zero catches are not included in this version of the dataset.

The original report contains catch statistics dating back to 1804 but many of these earlier records do not reference a defined NAFO fishing subarea.