The expansion of offshore wind farms (OWFs) and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) across
the North East Atlantic is increasing spatial competition with commercial fisheries. This study
used 16 years (2008–2023) of anonymised Belgian Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data to
identify Essential Fishing Grounds (EFGs) and assess their interactions with OWFs and MPAs
across the four study regions.
EFGs were identified using fishing hours, landed weight, and value of landings across three
spatial resolutions: ICES rectangles, c-squares, and a 1 km grid. Spatial competition was
assessed through progressive loss, baseline comparison, and MPA intersection analyses.
Results showed that Belgian fishing activity is highly spatially concentrated, with persistent
EFGs occurring mainly in the southern North Sea, eastern English Channel, northern Celtic
Sea, and French Atlantic shelf. Spatial resolution strongly influenced EFG delineation, as C-
square resolution provided the best balance between spatial precision and practical
applicability for MSP.
The North Sea and Irish and Celtic Seas showed the strongest reductions in fishing activity
within OWF footprints, indicating increasing spatial exclusion as offshore wind farm
development expanded. MPA analyses demonstrated that overlap with EFGs depended more
on the spatial placement of protected areas than on their total extent; whereby English
Channel and Bay of Biscay exhibited comparatively limited interaction with both OWFs and
MPAs.
The findings demonstrate the importance of fine-scale fisheries data for evidence-based MSP
and support the integration of fisheries spatial information into planning tools such as GeoFish
promotor/supervisor feedback
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