Using VMS data to identify areas of high fishing concentration is not helpful, particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador. It will miss, essentially, our entire membership, since we are representative of the inshore fleets, which are small boats—35 feet or less. Those vessels are not required to have AIS technology, so none of their fishing activity is recorded through DFO fishing science data.
There will be no record to use, of course, when you're spatially planning to overlap these fishing areas. There is no way to capture that data if you use VMS.