Metodologia para a monitorização e gestão da pesca de arrasto em Portugal. O exemplo do SIG GEOCRUST 1.0

Abstract

A METHODOLOGY FOR THE MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT OF TRAWL FISHERIES IN PORTUGAL. THE SIG EXAMPLE OF GEOCRUST 1.0. This paper aims to present the Geographical Information System GEOCRUST 1.0, a computer programme developed within the fishery research project DGXIV 99/059, Use of Satellite GPS data to map effort and landings of the Portuguese crustacean fleet (GEOCRUST), in the University of Algarve. This stand-alone application was developed essentially to map fishing effort and catch per unit effort (CPUE) information for the Portuguese crustacean trawl fleet, operating off the Southwest and South coasts of Portugal. The data available for this study included GPS vessels’ geographical positions and speed, transmitted via satellite to the Portuguese fisheries inspection authorities, and their catch reported to the Portuguese Directorate-General of Fisheries. GEOCRUST 1.0 was developed in ®VISUAL BASIC 6.0 using two ActiveX control: ADODB, to connect with the ®MSACCESS 2000 database and ®MAPOBJECTS 2.0 PRO, to communicate with the maps and provide GIS facilities. The application includes seven modules with the following objectives: Module 1 – to map and edit the original VMS data for a single vessel or group of vessels, for different periods of time; Module 2 – to analyse the trawl speed of each vessel; Module 3 – to define the boundaries of all fishing trips performed by vessel along the year; Module 4 – to identify and define the trawl hauls, within each fishing trip; Module 5 – to issue maps of fishing effort and CPUE; Module 6 – for exploratory data analysis and to extract data from the DB for further use in other computer packages and Module 7 – to recreate the activity of a single vessel, group of vessels or the total fleet, for a fixed period of time. This GIS application, fully developed by programming, has the advantage of being able to be used on its own without any need for external software support. The system developed is a methodological proposal to implement in Portugal, to monitor and manage the trawl fisheries, in particular, the crustacean trawl fishery.