Eastern Canada Commercial Fishing Landings 2014-2023

Eastern Canada commercial fisheries data from 2014 to 2023, aggregated onto a 2-minute hexagonal grid. The dataset contains total landings by weight for species and gear types, compiled from logbook entries for Canadian vessels in NAFO Subareas 0, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial patterns of fishing intensity by total landings weight per 10 km² hexagonal grid cell.
• Study species-specific landings distributions across the NL, Maritimes, Gulf, Quebec, and Eastern Arctic regions.
• Compare commercial fishing activity by gear type over the ten-year period from 2014 to 2023.
• Identify NAFO Subareas with withheld data indicated by a landings weight value of -9999 due to privacy screening.

Strengths

• Covers a ten-year time range from 2014 to 2023.
• Geospatial data aggregated onto a standardized 2-minute hexagonal grid (approximately 10 km² per cell).
• Sourced directly from Fisheries and Oceans Canada logbook entries prior to amalgamation.
• Explicitly documents privacy screening procedures for data withholding.

Limitations

• Data may contain original logbook errors, including inaccurate coordinates, landed weights, or species identification.
• Fishing events covering large areas (e.g., trawling) are represented by a single point location.
• Some species records (e.g., Lobster) may be incomplete due to regional mapping permissions or partial georeferencing.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Statistical Services.

Collection Method

Commercial species/gear type landings data from logbooks, overlaid on a hexagonal grid and summed by total weight per cell.

Time Range

2014 to 2023.

Freshness

Last updated March 2026.

Geography

Eastern Canada regions: NL, Maritimes, Gulf, Quebec, Eastern Arctic; NAFO Subareas 0, 2, 3, 4, 5.