Just published! - bring on the day when fishermen can use mobile technology to easily record fishing effort for the purposes of managing effort and directing management by region for and with the MMO.
Fishing activities are complex and vary greatly across different ports, seasons and gear types. Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) are required in the UK only on vessels ≥12 m long (EC No. 1224/2009), which represent 15% of the UK fleet size (MMO, 2014). Prior to 2002, VMS were limited to vessels ≥15 m (10% of UK fleet size). As most fishing vessels are not required to carry VMS there is a paucity of data describing the spatial distribution and intensity of effort by smaller, generally “inshore” fishing vessels at the resolution required for setting Marine Protected Area (MPA) conservation objectives (Hinz et al., 2013).
For more info see the publisher's site here: