Catalogue of Defra Historical Catch and Effort Charts: Six Decades of Detailed Spatial Statistics for British Fisheries

This report describes an inventory of over 37,000 unpublished historical 'Statistical Charts' held at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), Lowestoft, UK. These charts provide annual and monthly fisheries statistics at a fine spatial scale for the period 1913-81 (excluding both World Wars). More specifically, they show the annual and monthly landings and catch rates per fish species, and the fishing effort for various components of the British commercial fishing fleet. These values are indicated separately for each rectangle of 1° longitude by 30' latitude (equivalent to International Council for the Exploration of the Sea [ICES] rectangles) as well as for the entire area charted (generally equivalent to ICES fishing areas).