|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +title:'dafishr: An R Package to Download, Wrangle, and Analyze Vessel Monitoring System Data' |
| 3 | +tags: |
| 4 | + -fishery |
| 5 | + -IUU fishing |
| 6 | + -mixture models |
| 7 | + -marine protected areas |
| 8 | + -marine conservation |
| 9 | +authors: |
| 10 | + -name:Fabio Favoretto |
| 11 | +orcid:0000-0002-6493-4254 |
| 12 | +equal-contrib:true |
| 13 | +affiliation:"1, 2"# (Multiple affiliations must be quoted) |
| 14 | +affiliations: |
| 15 | + -name:Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA |
| 16 | +index:1 |
| 17 | + -name:Centro para la Biodiversidad y la Conservacion, A.C., La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico |
| 18 | +index:2 |
| 19 | +date:2 December 2022 |
| 20 | +bibliography:paper.bib |
| 21 | +editor_options: |
| 22 | +markdown: |
| 23 | +wrap:72 |
| 24 | +--- |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +#Summary |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated catches, commonly known as IUU |
| 29 | +fishing, are a big socio-economic problem with worldwide implications |
| 30 | +[@iuufish2021]. Making fishing vessels information available to |
| 31 | +researchers is critical in understanding how to stop and deter IUU |
| 32 | +activities. Here, I provide a novel tool to download, wrangle, and |
| 33 | +analyze Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data from the Mexican fishing |
| 34 | +industry. VMS data are hourly pings of geolocations of each of the 2000 |
| 35 | +(roughly) industrial vessels active under a Mexican flag. Data can be |
| 36 | +downloaded from 2007 to 2022, and new data is uploaded with a two-month |
| 37 | +delay in the<https://datos.gob.mx/> initiative portal. The package |
| 38 | +eliminates the need to download the data manually as these can be |
| 39 | +automatically searched and downloaded. Data comes in a directory labeled |
| 40 | +by year, so only bulk download is available up to now. Once downloaded, |
| 41 | +data can be easily wrangled into a tidy format[@wickham2014; |
| 42 | +@baumer2021]. The preprocessing coded within our package allows us to |
| 43 | +correct or filter out several data inconsistencies and spatially relates |
| 44 | +the vessels positions to specific locations. For example, all data will |
| 45 | +be intersected with the layer of all marine protected areas in Mexico, |
| 46 | +exclusive economic zone, and port areas. Finally, data can be modeled |
| 47 | +using Gaussian Mixture Models that are fitted to speed values |
| 48 | +[@mixtools]. Usually, an industrial boat at sea maintains a constant |
| 49 | +cruise speed, whereas, if that speed is not maintained, some activity is |
| 50 | +undertaken by the crew. If port areas are excluded, diverging from |
| 51 | +cruise speed in the high seas is likely because of preparation for |
| 52 | +fishing activity. Thanks to these model outputs, one can infer potential |
| 53 | +fishing grounds from these models and gather more insights from these |
| 54 | +labeled data. |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | +#Statement of need |
| 57 | + |
| 58 | +[`dafishr`](https://cbmc-gcmp.github.io/dafishr/) is a package addressed |
| 59 | +to the fishery and marine conservation scientists. Despite being |
| 60 | +specific to the VMS dataset from the Mexican fishing industry, it can |
| 61 | +have a more extensive application. VMS data are rarely available and, if |
| 62 | +they are available, often take more time and effort to work with. |
| 63 | +Therefore, even if data is available to download, it still needs to be |
| 64 | +discovered or accessed by most researchers. Our package aims to bridge |
| 65 | +that gap by making the VMS data more usable and available for further |
| 66 | +analysis and work. Furthermore, output data can be used to assess |
| 67 | +regional fishing impacts; assess marine protected areas' efficiency in |
| 68 | +deterring fishing activity, and create models that can generate useful |
| 69 | +information for the fishing industry to make them more efficient. |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | +#Acknowledgements |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | +I acknowledge contributions from Eduardo Leon Solorzano, and support |
| 74 | +from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. This package enabled the |
| 75 | +analysis that is featured in a manuscript currently under review for |
| 76 | +publication in a peer reviewed journal[@favoretto2022]. |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | +#References |