Select the species of interest, the size component of the catch, season and catch metric below to display the desired hotspot map;

CPUE Map Comparison

Target Species

Non-Target Species

Proportion Map Comparison

Target Species

Non-Target Species

As part of the DiscardLess project work has been conducted to produce tools to assist stakeholders in achieving the gradual elimination of discarding. A number of mapping tools have been developed by the project to provide as much information as possible to fishers to assist in avoiding unwanted catches and to maximise opportunities to catch their quotas.

Using a unique dataset, combining observer data for Irish, French and British fishing vessels operating in the Celtic Sea between 2010 and 2015, maps have been developed to identify where catches of quota restricted species or under minimum conservation reference size catches have been consistent through time, thus indicating where they may be most likely to occur.

The maps have been constructed as follows;

  • The data used to construct these maps are based on the entire catch and not just landings.
  • Annual data are presented as well as data broken down into each quarter of the year to show how catches vary seasonally.
  • Two different catch metrics were used to identify where catches were consisten across time;
    • CPUE (catch per unit effort - kilograms caught per hour) This gives an indication of how the volume of a species in a catch varies and identifies where high or low volumes of certain species are consistently being caught.
    • Proportion of a species in the catch by weight By examining the proportion of a species in the catch an indication is given as to how clean catches are, or if there is a lot of associated bycatch, which is obviously important when trying to avoid unwanted catches.

Within this app the hotspot maps for each of these two catch metrics for each TAC species can be viewed individually. It is also possible to compare different layers from these individual maps for multiple species on one map to identify where different species distributions overlap.

We would be grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete the following short survey to provide feedback on this Hot-Spot Map Explorer. The Map Explorer is currently still in development and your thoughts and input could help to greatly improve this product.

This survey should only take 5-10 minutes to complete


1. Do you work in the fishing industry?
2. Which of the following best describes your job/role?

If you are involved in fishing please answer the following set of questions (otherwise skip to Q.8)

3. Which vessel size group are you involved with?
4. Which gear type(s) do you mainly fish with? (please select all that apply)
5. Which area(s) do you fish in? (please select all that apply)
7. Do you currently record where catches occur to help you make decisions about where to fish in the future?

Please now take a few minutes to answer questions on your experiences with the Hot-Spot Map Explorer

8. Are the maps presented at a scale that is useful and informative?
9. Is a quarterly time scale sufficient to provide useful catch information?
10. Is it useful providing maps based on both CPUE and the proportion of different species in the catch?
12. Do the maps display patterns of fish distributions and catches that you would expect?
13. Are the tools to overlay different layers on the same map useful?
14. Are the options to select the different map layers easy to understand and use?
15. Once maps are overlaid on the app are the final map displays easy to understand?
16. Do you think you would use this map explorer to help make decisions on where to go fishing?

Please note all responses are confidential and will be stored anonymously and securly by the Marine Institute for the duration of this project (5 years). *By providing an e-mail address, you agree to the Marine Institute's Privacy Statement and will only be contacted with updates related to this product.