This release contains data on fish landings by: Irish vessels to Irish ports; Irish vessels to foreign ports; and foreign vessels to Irish ports.
The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) Statistics Unit is responsible for collating all sea-fisheries data, particularly domestic and foreign landings by Irish vessels. Irish fishing vessels of 10 metres or longer are required to complete a logbook. Fishing vessels of less than 10 metres are not generally required to complete a logbook so landing statistics are gathered using sales notes.
Aquaculture and angling are not included in this release.
The CSO has made some changes to the value data received from the SFPA, particularly for 2012. The CSO also estimated for missing data. This estimation mainly applies to landings by Irish vessels in foreign ports which had quantity data but no value data. The data published by the SFPA should be regarded as the definitive fish landings data for Ireland.
The data were obtained by the CSO from the SFPA.
The CSO previously published an annual fishery statistics release. Fish landings by Irish vessels covering the period 1990 to 2004 were included in those releases.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) standardises the division of sea areas for statistical analysis. Each ICES statistical rectangle is '30 min latitude by 1 degree longitude' in size which is approximately 30 nautical miles by 30 nautical miles. A number of rectangles are amalgamated to create ICES areas. For 2007-2020 and 2022-2023, the ICES areas were further aggregated by the CSO to show meaningful areas for fish landings relating to Ireland.
ICES regions information was not included in the 2021 data provided by the SFPA. Therefore 2021 statistics for catch zones are not included.
The SFPA microdata included the name of the harbour that the fish were landed into. The CSO has grouped these together to show data for the main harbours in Ireland. Irish ports have also been aggregated at county level. Landings by Irish vessels into foreign ports have been aggregated to country level.
All data are subject to revision. There are mostly small differences between the official SFPA figures and those published in this release. If the causes of these differences are identified then the CSO will amend these figures as necessary e.g. estimation method for unusually low or high or missing unit values.
Data at annual level were obtained for 2007 to 2020. Monthly data for landings by Irish vessels into Ireland were also received in a separate file from the SFPA for 2003 to 2020 but the monthly data are not fully consistent with the annual data. For these years, the CSO made some adjustments to the monthly species codes to improve the consistency between the annual and monthly data e.g. where the SFPA had recoded the species during the processing of the data at annual level.
From 2021 onwards, the CSO received files from the SFPA in which annual and monthly data were integrated, resulting in improved consistency between annual and monthly data provided.
Two tables have been included showing the monthly profile of catches for all landings by Irish vessels for 2014-2023 (Table 9A) and a second table showing the monthly distribution by species for 2023 (Table 9B).
This release contains data for the main species landed. The microdata contain data at a more detailed level.
The tonnage figures presented are in live weight equivalent. The landed weight may differ from the weight of the fish as it was taken from the sea due to the processing of the catch on board the vessel (e.g. gutting, filleting, etc). Conversion factors were applied to the landed weight by the SFPA to calculate the live weight equivalent.
The name of the fishing vessel was included for most years in the data provided to the CSO by the SFPA. However even in those years, the name of the vessel is not on all records. Hence no summary tables have been presented showing vessel characteristics (number, length, engine power, etc.).
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