Kent and Essex Fishing Vessel Patrol Sightings from 2008 to Present

Kent and Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority patrol vessels log sightings of commercial fishing vessels at sea. The data includes time, date, position, vessel identifier, name, gear type, and activity for fishery management and enforcement. Data is input into GIS for spatial analysis.

Use Cases

• Mapping spatial patterns of fishing activity based on vessel position data.
• Analyzing temporal trends in fishing effort based on recorded time and date.
• Profiling fleet composition and gear usage based on vessel name and gear type.
• Supporting risk-based enforcement strategies based on recorded vessel activity.

Strengths

• Data collection began in 2008, providing a multi-year time series.
• Includes multiple recorded attributes per sighting: time, date, position, vessel identifier, name, gear type, and activity.
• Data is integrated into a GIS for spatial analysis.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Kent and Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA), via the Government Digital Service.

Collection Method

Logged by patrol vessels during at-sea surveillance of commercial fishing vessels.

Time Range

2008 to present.

Freshness

Data collection is ongoing ('2008 - present'), but the last update date is unknown.

Geography

The sea areas patrolled by the Kent and Essex IFCA.