Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data for 46E5, 47E5, 46E6 and 47E6: EIR release

Information requested

Data request
Data type:
Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) and fishing sightings data.
Area of interest:
ICES rectangles 46E5, 47E5, 46E6 and 47E6
Period of interest:
2015 – 2018

Please provide Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data for ICES rectangles 46E6 and 47E6 over the entirety of 2015 and 2018, including the following parameters: Record time/date, Vessel Nationality, Lat, Long, ICES Rectangle, Gear Code, Course and Speed. If at all possible, please also provide data on vessel size (length, tonnage), status (fishing or not) and fishing type (pelagic / trawling / potting etc). I understand that some of these parameters might not be available, so please just discount any that you are not able to provide from this request. 
In addition, please provide fishing sightings data for the same area and time period. 

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI-202000041277 Information released - VMS data

File type

Excel document

File size

4.0 MB