Abstract
Flying Fisheries: Aerial Survey Monitoring Tools for Impact Assessment
Track: Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management
Author
Monitoring of fishing vessel activity in the UK utilizes both airborne survey and satellite tracking techniques, which both generate large volumes of raw spatial data. To understand the potential impact of offshore developments (oil and gas, renewables, dredging) on fishing activities this data must be analyzed and queried under multiple scenarios (vessel type, nationality, date, speed).
A series of custom tools have been developed using VBA enabling non-GIS specialists to directly query and map vessel activity from both airborne and satellite surveys. The statistical techniques applied by the program conform to standard methods required by the UK regulatory agencies.
These tools have significantly reduced the time required to interpret data from days to hours enabling fishing vessel data to be considered at an earlier stage of the assessment including rapid assessment projects where this analysis would previously not have been economically or temporally viable.
Simon Ross
Environmental Resources Management
399 Boylston Street
6th Floor
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
United States
Phone: 857-294-1400
E-mail: simon.ross@erm.com
Adam Payne
ERM
1-2 Walbrook Court
North Hinksey Lane
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX2 0QS
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 1865 384 869
E-mail: adam.payne@erm.com