I'm not sure what is going on but there is far more fishing going on this month by far than any other month this year. Is everybody trying to beat any new quotas that may be brought in?

Compare January 2021

https://globalfishingwatch.org/map/workspace/udw-v2-3484d315-88b8-4ada-9d1f-ef616ca1d86e

to

January 2020

https://globalfishingwatch.org/map/workspace/udw-v2-4bb6097c-0284-4a8d-bb28-0c1009f2c9dd

That is a huge difference. What is going on?

They're not fishing boats are they ? Called 'fishing efforts' which I'm thinking is data being collected from those areas. Manyboats are in French waters, Geurnsey waters, Irish waters. Put the night light vessel detectors on, you'll see where the fishing boats are .

Here's the marine traffic. :

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:1.4/centery:50.6/zoom:6

Don't know why this won't paste.. if it doesn;t do it this time.. search Marine Traffic.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:1.3/centery:49.0/zoom:6

As I understand it, these are when fishing boats are actually fishing as opposed to manoeuvring, the data is collected from various sources as fishing vessels under 15 metres in length don't have to use AIS - and many don't.