In March 2025, we released version 3.0 of the downloadable static Global Fishing Watch apparent fishing effort dataset here. Data is available for 2012-2024 and based on positions of >190,000 unique automatic identification system (AIS) devices on fishing vessels, of which up to ~96,000 are active in a given year.
What changes to this dataset format will affect the existing analysis code?
Changes in dataset format are minimal, and many analysis processes developed for Version 2 may run on Version 3 with no modification. However, users wishing to switch from Version 2 to Version 3 should note that the layout of the vessel list has changed. In Version 2, each MMSI appeared as a single entry in the vessel list, and columns included “fishing_hours_[YYYY]” for years 2012-2020. These columns contained the total apparent fishing hours by that MMSI in year YYYY. However, in the new version (Version 3), these columns are replaced by a single “fishing_hours” column, and there is now an overall “year” column. An MMSI gets one entry in the table for each year in which it was active, and the “fishing_hour” column for an MMSI-year combination contains the fishing_hours for that MMSI in that year. More information is available in the schema and README file for the vessel list. This change was made because it allows the vessel information for an MMSI to change across years. For example, the registry information for some MMSI in the data changes over time, which may cause our vessel classification for that MMSI to change over time.
You can find more information about version 3 in this related FAQ: “What is different between this v3 dataset and the data shown on the GFW Map or APIs?” here.
Learn more about what updates may be seen in the latest release of this dataset from our team here.