Historical commercial AIS

The optional amber map layer contains three small areas with repeat-day apparent commercial fishing activity. It comes from Global Fishing Watch’s public v3 dataset, not exact charter stops. No target species, catches or present fishing success are known.

What was sampled

All 61 daily files for July and September 2024 were processed for the local offshore region. The extraction retained 696 records. These two months are a dated sample, not a continuous season or a live fleet feed.

Each outline preserves an original 0.01° statistical grid cell, about 0.9 × 1.1 km here. A cell needs at least 15 apparent fishing minutes on each of two dates and at least one hour total. Adjacent regions were not filled in. The three retained cells are two unspecified-gear cells offshore Point Buchon and a trawler cell offshore Morro Bay.

How to use it

Open Map → Options → Show commercial AIS areas. Tap a labeled cell for its dates, classified gear, effort, resolution and sources. The layer is separate from the 200-foot habitat atlas: its depth is unknown. All MPAs are excluded. A commercial vessel’s fishing method and catch may have little relevance to your rod-and-reel target.

Charter evidence

The expanded NOAA archive search processed 106.9 million nationwide broadcasts across 11 sampled 2026 dates, retaining 37,202 local records and 65 reported vessel identifiers. It still found no independently verified local sportfishing-charter identities. Reception gaps, vessel naming and incomplete sampling limit the result.

Pecho Rock and Diablo remain approximate named vicinities supported by dated reports. Broad “Morro Bay” reports have no map outline. No charter lingering coordinates have been invented.

Sources and separate data license

© Global Fishing Watch. 2025. Global AIS-based Apparent Fishing Effort Dataset v3.0. SkipperCast extracted the region, applied a repeat-day filter and excluded MPAs. This derived layer retains CC BY-NC 4.0; the app’s personal-use license does not replace the source data license.

Official dataset and download · Methods and coverage limits · NOAA archive documentation

Extraction coverage and provenance · Published aggregate geometry · NOAA charter audit

2024 vessel classification is provisional. AIS does not cover every boat; detection and classification errors remain possible. Apparent fishing effort is not proof of fishing or catches.