Nearly 200 Iranian vessels detected in Somali and Yemeni waters represent one of the world’s largest illegal fishing operations. Global Fishing Watch (GFW) and Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT) have been working with partners in the Northwest Indian Ocean region, including the Somali government, to identify large-scale illegal fishing that is occurring inside the waters of […]
Furthering innovation and collaboration is at the heart of Global Fishing Watch’s mission to advance responsible stewardship of our oceans through increased transparency. Our Research Partners program, an interdisciplinary collaboration with some of the world’s leading marine science institutes, strives to improve fisheries management and science via new research and data sharing through our public […]
Just a few years ago the very idea of collecting billions of radio signals from ocean-going vessels all around the world and creating a global map of their activity in near-real time would have been unthinkable. But today’s cloud computing technology allows us to do amazing things with huge amounts of data.
Along with the recent release of our fishing effort data, we are also releasing information on how good AIS coverage is for different parts of the world. That is, in some parts of the ocean, an AIS signal sent by a vessel is very likely to be in our database, and in others, it is less likely […]
Using bright lights to reveal the ‘dark’ fleet Christopher Elvidge with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Earth Observation Group writes about matching night-time imagery with monitoring data from fishing vessels to shed new light on the ‘dark’ fleet. The challenges with tracking vessels Vessel tracks from Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Vessel […]
The satellite-based Automatic Identification System (AIS) is great for locating vessels, but it’s not fully reliable for identifying them. AIS broadcasts coded messages that include information about a vessel’s identity such as its name, ship
Projects Disabled Signals When and why vessels stop broadcasting their position The automatic identification system (AIS) has revolutionized the way fishing activity is monitored across the ocean. But vessels don’t always broadcast their locations—AIS devices can be switched off to conceal a vessel’s activity. Our work on disabled signals seeks to identify when and why […]
Pilot study first to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of all large industrial vessels operating in the ocean As part of our ongoing work to shine a light on all industrial activity at sea, we have, for the first time ever, mapped and estimated the emissions of all industrial vessels operating in the ocean. Our […]
One year into the pandemic that triggered turmoil around the world, an analysis of Global Fishing Watch data sheds light on shifts in global fishing activity As the world marks the March 11th anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fishing sector—like many industries—continues to feel the effects. With our […]
Overview Automatic identification system (AIS) devices are a type of GPS tracking device that vessels use while at sea. AIS messages contain two types of information: positional messages which contain the vessel’s GPS location, course, heading and speed; and static messages which contain the vessel’s identity information including vessel name, IRCS, IMO, shiptype, dimensions and […]
