California Ocean Uses Atlas: Fishing sector

This dataset is a result of the California Ocean Uses Atlas Project: a collaboration between NOAA's National Marine Protected Areas Center and Marine Conservation Biology Institute. The Project was designed to enhance ocean management through geospatial data on the full range of significant human uses of California's ocean environment from the shoreline to the 200 nm EEZ boundary. Data was gathered from regional ocean experts and users through participatory GIS methods. For more information on the project scope, background and related data products, please visit www.mpa.gov.

The California Ocean Uses Atlas Project fills a critical information gap in ocean management by providing an unprecedented, comprehensive, consistent and spatially explicit picture of human uses for management agencies, policy makers and stakeholders interested in sound and equitable ocean governance. Using participatory GIS concepts and applications, the Atlas Project generated spatial data and map products illustrating patterns, intensity, and temporal changes in a wide range of human uses in three broad categories of use: (i) fishing, (ii) non-consumptive, and (iii) industrial activities. The resulting datasets depict patterns of ocean use on a broad scale appropriate for a variety of ocean planning and management needs. This dataset contains the fishing activities, and is part of the larger California Ocean Uses Atlas database.

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The Fishing sector contains 11 ocean uses: -Commercial dive fishing: includes commercial SCUBA and free diving for invertebrates and fishes; excludes all other forms of commercial fishing; -Commercial fishing with benthic fixed gear: includes traps, pots, bottom longlines, bottom gillnets, vertical hook and line; excludes all other forms of commercial fishing; -Commercial fishing with benthic mobile gear: includes trawling, dredging, other mobile gear; excludes all other forms of commercial fishing; -Commercial kelp and algae harvest: includes commercial kelp and algae harvesting; excludes all other harvesting; -Commercial pelagic fishing: includes mid-water trawling, purse seine, pelagic longlines, handlines, harpoons, mid-water gillnets; excludes all other forms of commercial fishing; -Hunting for marine animals other than fish or invertebrates: includes marines mammals, birds, turtles in or on the ocean; excludes all other forms of hunting, including in wetland habitats; -Kayak fishing: includes hook and line fishing from hand-propelled kayaks; excludes all other forms of fishing, including motorized kayaks; -Recreational and commercial fishing from shore: includes rod and reel, surf-casting, fishing from piers, jetties, crap traps, cast nets; excludes all other forms of shore-based fishing; -Recreational dive fishing: includes recreational SCUBA and free-diving for invertebrates and fishes; excludes all other forms of fishing; -Recreational fishing from boats: includes party boats, rod and reel, trolling, traps, head boats, and private boats targeting benthic and pelagic species; excludes all other forms of boat-based fishing; -Shore-based recreational harvest: includes intertidal collection or subsistence harvest of living marine species (i.e. plants, invertebrates, and fish) for consumption, bait, aquaria, or research; excludes all other forms of harvesting; For all uses mapped in this sector, the use footprint and dominant use areas are included in the dataset. The use footprint (aka the Maximum Footprint of Use) includes all areas in which the use is known to occur with some regularity, regardless of frequency or intensity. The dominant use areas include areas where the use is most commonly pursued and are defined as areas within the general use footprint that are routinely used by most users most of the time. Future use areas are also included for certain uses where participants anticipated an increase in spatial extent or intensity. Future use areas reflect an anticipated significant and disproportionate (relative to other areas) change in patterns of use through either a lateral expansion of a dominant use area or an increase in intensity of use, or both in the foreseeable future but within the next ten years. For uses where data was not collected for a particular region (e.g. commercial fishing with benthic mobile gear, shore-based recreational harvest) the footprint and dominant data layers include a <null> value for that region.

For more information on use definitions and types, see the readme document within the geodatabase or visit https://coast.noaa.gov/arcgis/rest/services/MarineCadastre/OceanUsesCalifornia/MapServer.

Atlas data describe broad uses of the ocean, and are not intended to be used for navigational purposes or provide information on regulations affecting human activities.

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Atlas data describe broad uses of the ocean, and are not intended to be used for navigational purposes or provide information on regulations affecting human activities.

Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.2.6.1500

Attribute accuracy was maintained by comparing data before and after each process step, and by comparing final product to source data.

Workshops were conducted at a maximum scale of 1:250,000. During post processing, original workshop polygons were aggregated to an ordered one nautical mile grid, so exact use locations within each block are not discernible. Data are intended to portray broad patterns for each use at a comparable scale to inform ocean management but are not intended for navigation or enforcement purposes.

Recreational shore-based harvest and Hunting for marine animals other than fish or invertebrates were added after the first workshop (Southern California) so there is no data for that region. Commercial fishing with benthic mobile gear was not mapped in Central California due to insufficient knowledge of this use among workshop participants. Recreational fishing from boats was mapped as a single use in Southern California but was mapped separately for benthic and pelagic activity in the other 3 regions. In order to provide a consistent statewide dataset, the recreational boat fishing data for those 3 regions was combined to represent both benthic and pelagic fishing. In 3 of the 4 regional atlas workshops, an attempt was made to map uses of the ocean by tribal peoples. Two distinct approaches were taken. First, we mapped tribal activities taking place within the existing range of ocean uses addressed by the Atlas project (e.g. tribal pursuit of benthic fishing with fixed gear; beach use by tribal peoples). Most of the resulting tribal use patterns fell within either the general maximum footprint or the dominant use area drawn for those uses by other non-tribal participants and are thus not represented as uniquely tribal activities. Second, we attempted to map distinctly tribal use areas tied to specific geographic locations of special cultural, spiritual or historical significance. Although some tribal participants provided relevant information, not all tribal interests were represented in each workshop and some participants were reluctant to portray use patterns of other tribes. As a result, the resulting maps of tribal activity patterns may depict an incomplete or misleading picture of the full spectrum of tribal uses of the ocean in each region. Consequently, in order to avoid misinterpretation of the tribal use patterns, and to maintain data consistency and integrity throughout the Atlas maps, the tribal use data are not explicitly depicted in the public release of the atlas data or map products. They will, however, be provided to the California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative and to the tribal participants for their use, with appropriate explanatory information about their content and limitations. For additional information on the tribal ocean use data, please contact the MPA Center.

Logical consistency was maintained by comparing data before and after each process step, and by comparing final product to source data.