Tasmanian Commercial Fisheries Catch and Effort Summaries, 2003-2023

Logbook data from commercial fishers, aggregated to produce summaries of total catch and effort at a 5-degree resolution where 5 or more boats operate. The data was mapped using multi-year financial periods from 2003/04 to 2022/23. It originates from the Tasmania Natural Resources and Environment department and is aggregated by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Mapping commercial fishing effort distribution based on the 5-degree spatial resolution.
• Analyzing temporal trends in catch totals across the multi-year financial periods (e.g., 2003/04-2007/08).
• Identifying areas of high fishing activity where data is not confidential (5+ boats).
• Assessing potential impacts on marine ecosystems based on aggregated catch and effort data.

Strengths

• Data covers a long temporal range, from the 2003/04 financial year to 2022/23.
• Spatial aggregation protects fisher confidentiality in areas with fewer than 5 boats.
• Data is derived from mandatory commercial fishing logbooks, suggesting a systematic collection method.

Limitations

• Data for areas with fewer than 5 boats is withheld and shown as confidential.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The aggregation method may obscure fine-scale spatial patterns.

Provenance

Source

Tasmania Natural Resources and Environment (NRE), via Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Recorded and submitted by commercial fishers in logbooks, then aggregated by NRE.

Time Range

2003/04 to 2022/23, in multi-year financial periods and a single year (2022/23).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 00:20:31.716957; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Tasmanian state marine and estuarine waters.