Our understanding of the distribution and abundance of gelatinous mesozooplankton (0.2–20 mm) has been largely determined from the deployment of net sampling devices. Although zooplankton nets have been shown to underrepresent the abundance of certain gelatinous taxa in comparison to data from optical systems, nets still provide relative abundances for gelatinous zooplankton. A potential source of standardized, long‐term, and broad‐scale data for the relative abundance and distribution of gelatinous mesozooplankton is from fisheries monitoring programs which use zooplankton samplers such as the high‐speed Gulf VII sampler to capture fish eggs and larvae in shelf and offshore waters. To evaluate the use of the Gulf VII sampler as a source of gelatinous mesozooplankton data, this study collected zooplankton samples using both a Gulf VII sampler and a vertical ring net at 15 stations off the northwest Irish and Scottish coasts in July 2017. The difference in the estimates of gelatinous mesozooplankton abundance and taxon richness of the Gulf VII and the ring net samples were not significant (mean abundance: Gulf VII = 135.7 ± 79.7 ind. m⁻³, ring net = 149.7 ± 66.5 ind. m⁻³; taxon richness: Gulf VII = 15.2 ± 2.4, ring net = 15.4 ± 2.5), although the Gulf VII underestimated the abundance of the appendicularian Oikopleura sp. by a factor of 9.7 when compared to the ring net. Our findings describe how added value can be provided to already existing zooplankton monitoring programs while enhancing the temporal and spatial coverage of data available for gelatinous mesozooplankton.