Multimedia assets: Close encounters of the fishy kind

Press Release / By / / 1 minute of reading

New data reveals suspected vessel rendezvous at sea and sheds light on the ‘dark’ fleet

Global Fishing Watch (GFW) has increased ocean transparency by releasing the first-ever ‘live’ global view of likely transshipping at sea — a practice that can mask illegal fishing activity, and imagery of night-time fishing and its location, exposing vessels often hidden from other monitoring systems.

Encounters between vessels at sea map view

Night light vessel detection map view

Watch the tutorial about our new encounters between vessels at sea map layer.

Watch short video introductions to:

Encounters between vessels at sea map layer introduction

Night light vessel detection map layer introduction

Animated .gifs

New encounters layer global overview

thousands of vessels are involved in close encounters at sea
Global Fishing Watch’s new encounters layer reveals for the first time where and when thousands of vessels are involved in close encounters at sea. To detect pairs of vessels meeting at sea, analysts applied machine learning algorithms to more than 30 billion Automatic Identification System (AIS) messages from ocean-going boats to find tell-tale transshipment behaviour, such as two vessels alongside each other long enough to transfer catch, crew, or supplies. © Global Fishing Watch

New night light vessel detection map

Global Fishing Watch’s new night light vessel detection layer uses satellite imagery from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to reveal the location and activity of brightly lit vessels operating at night. Because the vessels are detected solely based on light emission, we can detect individual vessels and even entire fishing fleets that are not broadcasting AIS and so are not represented in the AIS-based fishing activity layer . © Global Fishing Watch
A fleet of around 200 Chinese squid fishing vessels moves gradually eastward towards the protected waters of the Galapagos Islands. They fish only at night using lights to attract the squid to the surface. © Global Fishing Watch

Arabian Squid Fleet AIS and night light

A fleet of squid fishing vessels in the Arabian sea. By adding satellite imagery of brightly lit vessels operating at night, the size of the fleet is revealed to be many times larger. © Global Fishing Watch
With Global Fishing Watch’s new night light vessel detection layer the location and activity of brightly lit vessels operating at night across the Gulf of Mexico is revealed. © Global Fishing Watch

Night light layer SE Asia

With Global Fishing Watch’s new night light vessel detection layer the location and activity of brightly lit vessels operating at night across SE Asia is revealed. © Global Fishing Watch

 Night light layer Europe

With Global Fishing Watch’s new night light vessel detection layer the location and activity of brightly lit vessels operating at night across Europe is revealed. © Global Fishing Watch
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