Small vessels represent an important sector of the commercial fishing industry but lack spatial data on their activities. These data are needed for effective Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) decisions in the light of increased competition for space from offshore wind farm developments and marine protected areas. We present a novel digital, geographically feature-rich, fisheries Participatory Geographic Information System (PGIS) which enables vessels without positional tracking systems to provide spatial data on their fishing activities for MSP purposes. Using this PGIS, we surveyed skippers based in a designated area for offshore wind development off the south coast of Ireland in summer 2024. The majority of 78 survey participants had chart plotters on board their vessels which we used to validate their spatial data. We used a Bayesian approach to analyse uncertainty around validation which demonstrated a high level of certainty across most of the study area. Our interdisciplinary PGIS approach enabled real-time digitization and validation of spatial fisheries activities and engendered a strong sense of willingness from survey participants. The resulting aggregated fishery maps were made publicly available for MSP purposes. We discuss the benefits, limitations and potential application of this approach to other MSP challenges. • Developed a novel PGIS mapping approach to fill data gaps for <12 m fishing activities. • Conducted interviews ( n = 78) onboard vessels & validated data on fishing activities. • Results show <12 m aggregated fishing activity across Ireland's maritime area plan for offshore wind.
Tray et al. (Fri,) studied this question.