Estimating fishing effort in small-scale fisheries using high-resolution spatio-temporal tracking data (an implementation framework illustrated with case studies from Portugal)

•Series of procedures to develop a protocol to analyse high temporal resolution tracking data (small scale fisheries) are developed and illustrated.•Development of expert validation data, pre-processing data, and assement of the best temporal resolution.•Methods evaluation (statistical modelling and machine learning methods) based on error measures and fishing effort indicators.•New method using modes to classify boats behaviour is presented.•Portuguese SSF require less than 2 min temporal interval (ping rate) and the best method were mode and random forest applied to moving averaged speed. Small-scale fisheries (SSF, boats