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New Fusion of Global Datasets Advances Understanding of Vessel Identity and Activity

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Novel research provides new tool to improve global fisheries oversight Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing accounts for up to $23.5 billion every year and is enabled by vessels frequently changing their name, flag State or owner. New research , led by Global Fishing Watch and published in Science Advances , uses big data processing and a compilation of global datasets to track […]

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fish underwater

With New Global Accessibility and Data Features, Marine Manager Raises the Bar on Ocean Monitoring

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Latest release of online tool will help more people monitor and manage greater expanses of the seas A screenshot taken from the portal shows the overlay of different datasets: sea surface temperature and salinity, along with fishing activity. © Global Fishing Watch In our brief but exciting history working to shed greater visibility on what’s

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AIS disabling hotspots map

Hotspots of Unseen Fishing Vessels Illuminate Areas of Concern for Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

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New study provides first global dataset examining intentional disabling of automatic identification system devices across commercial fisheries The ocean is vast and ship crews rely on several tools to navigate it safely. One of these tools is the automatic identification system, commonly referred to as AIS, which uses GPS transponders to regularly broadcast critical information,

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Global Fishing Watch staff behind FAO sign

Transparency Can Bring Forward Outcomes of International Fisheries Meeting

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Committee on fisheries advances transshipment monitoring, vessel identification and tracking to fight illegal fishing © Shutterstock International fisheries are managed through a patchwork of regulations, which present loopholes that are often exploited for financial gain, undermining collective good governance efforts. To help address this, every two years, the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) of the Food

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In Latin America, Training Helps Governments to Discover Suspicious Behavior

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Global Fishing Watch reinstates in-person training with partners to strengthen the use of technology in support of responsible ocean management Lack of available information on global and regional fishing activity is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to monitoring the ocean and understanding the true extent of humanity’s impact on the sea.  To

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Peruvian boobies

Seabirds: An Unexpected Ally in Fisheries Monitoring

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An innovative research project allows scientists to see through the eyes of seabirds to understand interactions with the Peruvian anchovy fishing fleet https://youtu.be/rI0Yj8aYhOE On any given day, you can find a wreck of seabirds soaring above the waters of Peru’s largest fishery—the anchovy—swooping down toward various fishing vessels hauling in their catch. These sentinels of

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Recent Study Shows How Satellite Technology Can Help Track Illegal Fishing Throughout the Pacific Region

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Enhanced transshipment monitoring is key in reducing illegal catch Tuna fisheries are vital to livelihoods, economies and cultures across the Pacific Islands region. Producing over half of the global catch—a portion estimated at $26 billion per year—the Pacific is home to the world’s most productive tuna fisheries. Ensuring the sustainability of these tuna fisheries is no small

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Mapping a New World

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Tony Long, Global Fishing Watch’s chief executive officer, finds cause for gravity but also hope as we look to the Decade of Ocean Science and a growing consensus that our future—and the course ahead for ocean conservation—should be powered by waves of data, shared and open to all We wish the news were better, but

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Transparency in Fisheries is Essential to Ocean Resilience

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Credit: © Nico Marin / Ocean Image Bank Despite the complexities of climate change, a simple message resonates: all systems are linked, and the ocean is a key solution A resilient ocean is key to addressing climate change. Our shared waters are primary atmospheric drivers through temperature regulation, carbon absorption, oxygen production and influence on

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Bronwen Golder

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a Powerful Forum for Boosting Transparency to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

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APEC members share marine resources across a single ocean basin. Ensuring sustainable exploitation and trade is a shared concern. Bronwen Golder, fellow with the Stanford University Center for Ocean Solutions, was the moderator of the webinar series “Transparency as a Tool for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.” Credit: ©Bronwen Golder The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, is an

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Transparent Ocean Data Can Drive Digital Innovation to Reveal Human Activity at Sea

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Global Fishing Watch partners with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Decade of Ocean Science to bring digital innovation to fisheries monitoring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkyvl2dHZUI&ab_channel=GlobalFishingWatch Commercial fishing is vital to the food security, livelihoods and cultural identity of millions of people around the world. But the fish that sustain this industry freely swim

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Squid Smarts: 5 Things You Need to Know about Jumbo Squid Fishing in the Southeast Pacific Ocean

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An analysis of the 2020 squid season reveals key players and true scope of fishing activity The jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas), commonly referred to as Humboldt squid, is the most abundant cephalopod species in the southeast Pacific Ocean. Each year, this voracious and highly migratory marine animal attracts hundreds of fishing vessels from around the world to

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Close encounters between albatross and fishing vessels in the North Pacific

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Rachael Orben is an Assistant Professor at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center. In September of 2016, Leigh Torres, associate professor at Oregon State University, and I attended the 6th International Albatross and Petrel Conference. Somehow, amid all of the science that filled the week, Leigh first saw the Global Fishing Watch fishing map. She

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Illegal fishing by dark fleets in north korea

A 2020 Analysis: Detecting the Dark Fleets in North Korea and Russia

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Satellite technology reveals decline in illegal fishing activity in North Korean and Russian waters compared to previous years In July 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was sweeping across the globe, Global Fishing Watch published a groundbreaking scientific paper revealing one of the largest known cases of illegal fishing. The foreign fishing activity detected across 2017-19 in the Democratic

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