Linking Port Communities to Resource Areas:

Aggregating logbook data to the “community” level, where community is defined by the end user using port or port group attributes, allows for a clear linking of port communities to those resource areas most frequented by the community as defined. The tool will allow the user to see and then choose the parameters that will be used to build a secondary dataset of communities, their spatial expression, and their attributes. Attributes will include summaries of variables by community: number vessels, average number crew, number days fished, average days fished, seasonal averages, etc.

The community database will also calculate and contain spatial statistics: average distance from port, average depth, indexes of clustering and spread, nearest neighbor statistics, etc. These attributes by community will be available for query and display (in tabular and graphic form) via the web interface. The database will consist of both the summary statistics described above and a spatial data of resource areas for each community. The areas will be represented by percent volume contours (based on trip locations weighted by length of trip and number of crew) calculated using the raw logbook information. The PVC maps and their attributes will be downloadable as shapefiles and useful for integrating into composite maps. Alternatively, for single community calculations (e.g. just large trawl vessels from Gloucester, MA), the user can specify that a density surface rather than a PVC map be output. In this case, the surface will represent community presence as a continuous surface which will also be downloadable and amenable to other forms of raster and multi-criteria analysis.

Linking Resource Areas to Port Communities:

The second major function of the tool will be to link resource areas to port communities. This is principally for assessing the impact of some area-based initiative on port communities. Rather than specifying communities and visualizing the areas upon which they depend, the end user will, in this case, specify an area at sea. The area can be input as a shapefile or can be digitized on screen. In either case, a polygon will define an area of interest to be analyzed. The tool will then access the raw logbook data to develop basic summary statistics such as the number unique vessels that fished in the area, to which ports do they belong, what percentage of trips by port are in the area, what types of vessels fish the area, etc. The tool can also use the “communities” defined by the end user (see above) to produce more targeted summary statistics (e.g. what percentage of fisherman days spent by small trawlers from Gloucester is spent in the area in question?).

In summary, we propose building a tool that will facilitate the linking of port communities to resource areas at sea. The primary means for linking will be to aggregate logbook data such that it represents “communities” and can be used to map community “presence” across space. While our work is primarily in fisheries and our tool will be designed to map fishing community resource areas, we believe that it and the maps it produces will be an essential resource for fisheries and marine scientists, fisheries managers, marine protected area initiatives, and coastal communities themselves.