Data and technology

Point Reyes vessel tracks

AIS ship tracking data shows false vessel tracks circling above Point Reyes, near San Francisco

Analysis from SkyTruth and Global Fishing Watch shows ship tracks jumping thousands of miles from their true locations.  Bjorn Bergman works with SkyTruth and with the Global Fishing Watch research team to track vessels broadcasting false automatic identification system (AIS) locations and to investigate new sources of satellite data for vessel tracking and for detecting […]

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earth ocean

New Partnership Aims to Build a Better Understanding of the Ocean

Paul Woods, chief innovation officer with Global Fishing Watch and Mogens L. Mathiesen, SVP, head of strategy and partnerships with the Ocean Data Foundation share their ambition on Earth Day (April 22) for a new partnership to harness the current explosion in new data and technology for better management of the ocean.     In

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Oil platforms or wind farms Radar Detections

Towards a Radar-Illuminated Ocean

At Global Fishing Watch, we use cutting-edge technology to visualize, track and share data about global fishing activity in near real-time and for free. Our primary dataset comes from data about a vessel’s identity, type, location, speed, direction and more that is broadcast using the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and collected via satellites and terrestrial

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saltelite

Detecting Dark Fishing Activity in the North Natuna Sea

On March 1st 2020, Indonesian authorities seized five Vietnamese vessels fishing illegally in the North Natuna Sea, located south west of Indonesia’s Natuna Islands, which borders the South China Sea. The successful operation was conducted by patrol vessels from the Indonesian Directorate General (DG) of Surveillance (PSDKP) of The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries

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Challenges an opportunities - Global Atlas of AIS - based fishing activity

The Global Atlas of AIS-based Fishing Activity

In 2018, Global Fishing Watch (GFW) published the first ever global maps of fishing activity using AIS data. These fishing maps drew on billions of GPS positions broadcast by over 60,000 fishing vessels, and they revealed fishing operations in all oceans in incredible detail. These new methods, though, had yet to be vetted by the

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GFW training Peru

Global Fishing Watch holds workshops with authorities in Peru’s three main fishing ports

Global Fishing Watch recently met with port authorities and offered training on its commercial fishing activity platform in three important Peruvian fishing ports (Paita, Chimbote and Callao). Fisheries Analyst, Eloy Aroni, describes in this blog post how these meetings were an opportunity to discuss data and technology solutions to the main issues affecting each port,

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Commonwealth Club The Global Fishing Watch Research Program

Breakthroughs in Science: The Global Fishing Watch Research Program

Why is Global Fishing Watch (GFW), a non-profit organization, investing so much effort into collaborating with scientists to publish research papers? And why has the program been so successful in doing so? In this blog, GFW Research and Innovation Director, David Kroodsma outlines why we are pursuing this work, why he believes it has been

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From Vessels to Fleets – A Data Science Journey with HDBSCAN

When we look at the Global Fishing Watch map, we often see fishing activity that appears to move together. That is, we see groups of vessels consistently fishing in proximity to each other even as the group as a whole moves about the ocean. In other words, we see fleets.  Some members of our team,

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Screengrab global map

Match-making at sea: how to find fishing fleets

Staring at the Global Fishing Watch map, your eye is inevitably drawn to patterns of vessels that move together. These fishing patterns are most evident in the world’s longline fleets, which you can sometimes see moving north and south, as temperatures change, following migrations of fish. These fishing vessels are moving in “fleets” with similar

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Ton Bali

Global Fishing Watch 2018 – the year in transparency

After just over a year at the helm, Global Fishing Watch CEO, Tony Long, reflects on how a freely accessible and near real-time digital map of the global ocean is exposing illegal fishing and changing the rules of the game, and calls on all governments to contribute data and join the movement for universal transparency.

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oceana team

How Oceana used Global Fishing Watch data to promote transparency at sea during 2018

With increased transparency, we can see beyond the horizon and address the threats facing our oceans. Global Fishing Watch’s (GFW) mapping platform increases the transparency of commercial fishing activities worldwide, empowering Oceana and others to expose problems that were once out of sight, far from our coasts. Oceana analysts, part of Oceana’s Illegal Fishing and

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