Evaluating Suitability of Fishing Areas for Squid-Jigging Vessels in the Northwest Pacific Ocean Derived from AIS Data

Understanding the spatial distribution of fishing activity and suitable fishing areas is important for improving sustainable fisheries management and protecting vulnerable fish stocks. To identify climate-related habitat changes and variations in the distribution of fishing activity for squid-jigging vessels in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, two types (weighted arithmetic mean method, weighted-AMM; weighted geometric mean method, weighted-GMM) of habitat suitability index (HSI) models were developed in this study with marine environmental data at different depths. The boosted regression tree (BRT) model was adopted to access the monthly important environmental variables and the relative influence of the corresponding variables. The results showed that the weighted-AMM has better prediction performance than the weighted-GMM. The suitable fishing areas showed significant seasonal changes in both spatial location and coverage area. The hotspot map showed that the suitable fishing area for squid-jigging vessels was located in the scope of 42(degrees) N similar to 44(degrees) N, 155(degrees) E similar to 170(degrees) E throughout the year during 2012 similar to 2019, which suggests that high squid-jigging fishing pressure should be given more attention in fishery management. The HSI model also had good prediction performance for the fishery data of Chinese companies, except for June and July. Additionally, fishing efforts could be used as alternative data for fishery research. The study has also suggested that fishery data are restricted by spatial and temporal distribution and fishing experience, which probably biases the results of the research.

Automated summary

Understanding the spatial distribution of fishing activity and suitable fishing areas is crucial for sustainable fisheries management. This study developed habitat suitability index models using marine environmental data to identify climate-related habitat changes and variations in the distribution of fishing activity for squid-jigging vessels in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. The results showed significant seasonal changes in suitable fishing areas, and the weighted arithmetic mean method performed better in predicting fishing activity. The study emphasizes the importance of managing high fishing pressure areas and acknowledges the limitations of fishery data.