30e9cef6-9ee1-4f16-8a19-88eb1a7cf894 Sextant Ifremer ZI Pointe du Diable Plouzane Brittany 29280 France sextant@ifremer.fr https://sextant.ifremer.fr/eng pointOfContact 2026-10-09T14:08:48.456407Z ISO 19115-3 - SEXTANT 1.0 EPSG:4326 AIS Apparent Fishing Effort 2025-08-04 publication 30e9cef6-9ee1-4f16-8a19-88eb1a7cf894 Global Fishing Watch's AIS Apparent Fishing Effort dataset, version 3.0 (March 2025 release). Data is available for 2012 to 2024 and is based on positions of more than 190,000 unique automatic identification system (AIS) devices on fishing vessels, of which up to around 96,000 are active in a given year. Fishing vessels are identified via a machine learning model, vessel registry databases, and manual review by Global Fishing Watch and regional experts. Vessel time is measured in hours, calculated by assigning to each AIS position the amount of time elapsed since the previous AIS position of the vessel. The time is counted as apparent fishing hours if the Global Fishing Watch fishing detection model, a neural network machine learning model, determines the vessel is engaged in fishing behavior during that AIS position. Data are spatially binned into grid cells that measure 0.01 or 0.1 degrees on a side. The coordinates defining each cell are provided in WGS84 and correspond to the lower-left corner. Data are available in three formats: fishing hours by flag state and gear type at 100th degree resolution; monthly apparent fishing hours by flag state and gear type at 10th degree resolution; and fishing hours by MMSI at 10th degree resolution. The dataset is accompanied by a table of vessel information such as gear type, flag state and dimensions. Free for non-commercial use. This static dataset covers 2012 to 2024. For more recent data, or for a custom area, use the Global Fishing Watch APIs or the gfwr (R) and gfw-api-python-client (Python) packages, linked below. Read the data caveats before interpreting results. Global Fishing Watch Research and data inquiries GFW research@globalfishingwatch.org pointOfContact GFW Support support@globalfishingwatch.org pointOfContact https://sextant.ifremer.fr/geonetwork/srv/api/records/30e9cef6-9ee1-4f16-8a19-88eb1a7cf894/attachments/gfw-apparent-fishing-effort.jpg Global apparent fishing effort shown on the Global Fishing Watch map /Human Activities/Industrial Fishing Thèmes Sextant 2025-12-09 publication geonetwork.thesaurus.local.theme.sextant-theme Production and industrial facilities GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2018-07-27T14:39:48 publication 2018-07-27 publication geonetwork.thesaurus.external.theme.httpinspireeceuropaeutheme-theme AIS Automatic Identification System apparent fishing effort fishing effort commercial fishing vessel tracking CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons - Attribution, No commercial usage) grid utf8 oceans -180.00 180.00 -90.00 90.00 2012-01-01 2024-12-31 CSV https://globalfishingwatch.org/data-download/datasets/public-fishing-effort WWW:LINK Data Download Portal: AIS Apparent Fishing Effort (48 files, 2012-2024) Download the static dataset, 48 files covering 2012 to 2024 https://globalfishingwatch.org/dataset-and-code-fishing-effort/ WWW:LINK Datasets and Code: Apparent Fishing Effort Method, limitations and access routes for the apparent fishing effort dataset https://globalfishingwatch.org/our-apis/documentation/ WWW:LINK Global Fishing Watch API documentation Full reference for the Global Fishing Watch APIs https://globalfishingwatch.org/our-apis/tokens WWW:LINK Global Fishing Watch API access tokens How to request and use an access token for the Global Fishing Watch APIs https://globalfishingwatch.org/our-apis/documentation/docs/v3/general-api-doc/data-caveats WWW:LINK Data caveats Known limitations of each Global Fishing Watch dataset. Read before interpreting results. https://globalfishingwatch.org/our-apis/documentation/docs/v3/general-api-doc/key-concepts WWW:LINK Key concepts Definitions and time coverage for each Global Fishing Watch dataset https://globalfishingwatch.org/our-apis/documentation/docs/sdks/gfwr WWW:LINK gfwr: R package for the Global Fishing Watch APIs Install and usage guide for the gfwr R package https://globalfishingwatch.org/our-apis/documentation/docs/sdks/python-client WWW:LINK Python package for the Global Fishing Watch APIs Install and usage guide for the Global Fishing Watch Python package https://globalfishingwatch.org/global-fishing-watch-data-availability/ WWW:LINK Global Fishing Watch data availability Which datasets are available through the map, the APIs, the R and Python packages and the Data Download Portal AIS is a GPS-like device that large ships use to broadcast their position in order to avoid collisions. Each year, more than 400,000 AIS devices broadcast vessel location along with other information on vessel identity, course and speed. Ground stations and satellites pick up this information, meaning a ship’s movements can be followed even in the most remote parts of the ocean. Every day we receive raw AIS data from our partner at Spire. These data are first run through a series of our algorithms designed to filter out corrupt or incomplete records and assign additional information to each AIS message, such as the distance from shore, depth and time since the vessel’s previous AIS position. At this point, the AIS data is ready to be used by our machine learning models.