Mapping coastal fishing grounds and assessing the effectiveness of fishery regulation measures with AIS data: A case study of the sea area around the Bohai Strait, China

AIS data provide a good data source for revealing the distribution of marine fishing activities, assessing marine ecological pressure, and formulating and improving fishery regulation measures. In this study, a method of rapidly mapping fishing grounds was proposed, which combined Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) with Hot Spot Analysis (HSA). Then, taking the coastal sea area around the Bohai Strait in China as an example, the fishing ground in the coastal sea area was mapped based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, and the effectiveness of fishing regulation measures was analysed. The results showed that the fishing activities in the sea area around the Bohai Strait had obvious monthly and quarterly changes and spatial heterogeneity. Fishery regulation measures such as a summer fishing moratorium, stock enhancement, marine functional zoning, and coastal zones close to motorized bottom trawling have had certain restrictive effects on fishing activities. China has made significant efforts in the restoration of coastal fishery resources and the regulation of fishing activities to promote the sustainable development of fisheries and improve the marine ecological environment