New Hampshire / Southern Maine Ocean Uses Atlas: Fishing sector

The Ocean Uses Atlas Project is an innovative partnership between the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) and NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM). The Project was designed to enhance ocean management through geospatial data on the full range of significant human uses of the ocean environment from the shorelines of New Hampshire and Southern Maine to the EEZ boundary. The data were 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 http://www.crrc.unh.edu/workshops/ocean_uses/index.html or https://coast.noaa.gov/arcgis/rest/services/MarineCadastre/OceanUsesNewHampshireMaine/MapServer.

The New Hampshire / Southern Maine 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. Specifically, the data will be used in the Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) during the March 2010 Spill of National Significance (SONS) drill. This dataset contains the fishing activities, and is part of the larger New Hampshire / Southern Maine Ocean Uses Atlas database.

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The Fishing sector contains 12 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 commercial lobster fishing and 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 lobster fishing: includes commercial fishing for lobsters; excludes all other forms of commercial fishing; -Commercial pelagic fishing: includes mid-water trawling, purse seine, pelagic longlines, handlines, harpoons, mid-water gillnets; excludes all other forms of commercial fishing; -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 - benthic species: includes party boats, rod and reel, trolling, traps, head boats, and private boats targeting benthic species; excludes all other forms of boat-based fishing; -Recreational fishing from boats - pelagic species: includes party boats, rod and reel, trolling, head boats, and private boats targeting 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 commercial lobster fishing, dominant use areas were mapped separately for summer and winter.

For more information on use definitions and types, see the readme document supplied with the data or visit http://www.crrc.unh.edu/workshops/ocean_uses/index.html.For a crosswalk of field names to use names, see the aliases in the supplied ArcMap document NHME_ocean_uses_atlas_SAMPLE.mxd

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 1:100,000. During post processing, original workshop polygons were aggregated to an ordered one-quarter nautical mile squared 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.

All uses in the Fishing sector were mapped for the entirety of the project area.

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