Kimbra Cutlip, Author at Global Fishing Watch

Traditional fishing vessels in Indonesia

New Partnership Expands Our View to Artisanal Fisheries

Today, Global Fishing Watch is focused on tracking commercial-scale fishing fleets, because they are the ones required to carry Automatic Identification Systems that broadcast their information to satellites. But small, artisanal fishing vessels represent another side of the picture that can’t be ignored. Although they often employ low-tech, traditional fishing methods (especially in developing countries), small-boat subsistence fishers […]

New Partnership Expands Our View to Artisanal Fisheries Read More »

Vessel heading to port at Limassol, Cyprus

Tweeting End of Season

Policy & Compliance / By Kimbra Cutlip

Check out this Tweet by Rustu Yucel who used the Global Fishing Watch map to watch the close of the fishing season in Cypress this summer!

Tweeting End of Season Read More »

What Ports Can Tell Us

Data and technology / By Kimbra Cutlip

Ports provide an important source of information to help us combat Illegal fishing and understand the science and economics of global fisheries. “They serve as the interface between land and sea for fishing vessels,” says Wessley Merten, our data and fisheries analyst at Oceana. “Wherever there’s a port, there’s an interaction. Whether it be offloading

What Ports Can Tell Us Read More »

Continuous AIS signals broadcast by the purse seiner Egalabur indicated by green line

Characterizing Gaps in the Data

Data and technology / By Kimbra Cutlip

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.

Characterizing Gaps in the Data Read More »

We’ve Launched!

News & Views / By Kimbra Cutlip

Last Thursday, we kicked off the public launch of Global Fishing Watch with an announcement by actor and ocean advocate Leonardo DiCaprio at the Our Ocean Conference in Washington, DC. After the announcement, organizer and host Secretary of State John Kerry stopped by our demonstration in the conference hall to speak with the team and

We’ve Launched! Read More »

Interview with Michael Hirshfield: Chief Scientist and Strategy Officer, Oceana

News & Views / By Kimbra Cutlip

Dr. Michael Hirshfield oversees Oceana’s new offices in the Philippines, Canada and Brazil, and ensures that Oceana’s policy advocacy is solidly based on the latest scientific information. Throughout his long career, Dr. Hirshfield has worked on issues related to fisheries and aquatic ecosystems from a variety of viewpoints.

Interview with Michael Hirshfield: Chief Scientist and Strategy Officer, Oceana Read More »

Fu Yuan Yu 359 corrected google satellite background

When Vessels Report False Locations

Data and technology / By Kimbra Cutlip

Occasionally, the AIS messages transmitted from a ship provide a location that makes no sense, say, in the middle of the Antarctic or over a mountain range. In such cases, either the AIS transponder has malfunctioned, the data got scrambled in transmission, or the system has been tampered with in a deliberate attempt to disguise

When Vessels Report False Locations Read More »

Rendezvous at Sea: What is Transshipping?

Fisheries / By Kimbra Cutlip

In the commercial fishing world, transshipment is the transfer of catch from one vessel to another. During a transshipment, a fishing vessel meets up with a large refrigerated cargo-type ship, known as a “reefer.” They tie up alongside one another and drift while the fishing vessel offloads tons of catch before heading back out to

Rendezvous at Sea: What is Transshipping? Read More »

Interview with Chris Costello: Environmental Economist

News & Views / By Kimbra Cutlip

A 2016 recipient of the prestigious Peter Benchley Ocean Award, Dr. Christopher Costello is a professor of Environmental and Resource Economics at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, UC Santa Barbara. His work focuses on natural resource management, and in particular, the issues surrounding resources that cannot be claimed by an individual or

Interview with Chris Costello: Environmental Economist Read More »

Clarifying Identity: Matching Broadcasts to Vessel Registries

Data and technology / By Kimbra Cutlip

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

Clarifying Identity: Matching Broadcasts to Vessel Registries Read More »

Global Fishing Watch Well Received in Jakarta

News & Views / By Global Fishing Watch

Last week our Chief Technology Officer Paul Woods and Google’s lead on the project, Brian Sullivan traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, to participate in the South-East Asia and Pacific Regional Fisheries Summit. As part of the Economist Events’ World Ocean Initiative, the meetings brought together government, industry, the financial sector and scientists for two days of discussions

Global Fishing Watch Well Received in Jakarta Read More »

An octopus hides out while a squat lobster stands on guard

Diversity Expedition Update

Research and analysis / By Kimbra Cutlip

Last week we reported on an expedition to survey diversity in the deep sea off the coast of Southern California. The goal of the expedition was to document on video the diversity of deep sea diversity in the area and demonstrate the need to close the waters of the Southern California Bight to bottom trawl fishing which destroys

Diversity Expedition Update Read More »

AIS and the Challenges of Tracking Vessels at Sea

Data and technology / By Kimbra Cutlip

At Global Fishing Watch, we hear it all the time: “Tracking commercial fishing vessels from satellites is such a great idea, and it seems so easy!” In fact, we’ve received a few questions from our readers asking us why this isn’t just a simple hack of publicly available data.

AIS and the Challenges of Tracking Vessels at Sea Read More »

Rush Hour in the Sanctuary

Research and analysis / By Kimbra Cutlip

Way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on a sanctuary off limits to fishing activity, scientists are learning the habits of marine life uninterrupted by humans. In a recent study, they’ve found that sharks commute in and out of the lagoons of Palmyra on a daily basis. Rush hour according to the researchers

Rush Hour in the Sanctuary Read More »

A school of about 400 tons of jack mackerel encircled by a Chilean purse seiner

How Much Fish Can A Fisherman Fish? (and how we’re trying to find out)

Data and technology / By Kimbra Cutlip

To help researchers better understand how much fish is being taken from the ocean, we’re developing ways to use our data for estimating the total potential catch of the global fishing fleet. It’s a big and a complex question to answer, partly because the source of our information, AIS, is limited. It doesn’t tell us

How Much Fish Can A Fisherman Fish? (and how we’re trying to find out) Read More »

Kimbra Cutlip

Stay Informed