Impacts

Life below water

Life Below Water: Prioritizing safe and decent working conditions for fishers and fisheries observers

Two months ago, the death of fisheries observer Eritara Aati Kaierua was reported in Pacific waters, leading to an ongoing murder investigation. For many people, the idea of a murder taking place on board a confined fishing vessel out at sea seems inconceivable, but for those that know the fisheries sector well, it is yet […]

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Subsistence fisher returning in Kiritimati Island.

Life Below Water: Ensuring sustainable consumption and production of seafood

Large scale, commercial fishing activity has often historically taken place out of sight – fishing grounds far from shore make them difficult and costly to monitor, jurisdiction considerations impede governance and a patchwork of regulations have not kept pace with advances in fishing technologies. As our global seafood consumption has increased, so has the impact

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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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Chile & Peru VMS

Chile Shows Global Leadership On Fisheries Transparency

Once again, Chile shows it is serious about ocean protection. Putting its fishing vessel tracking data on Global Fishing Watch’s public platform will help to build more transparent and sustainable fisheries The May 2019 United Nations report warning of unprecedented rates of extinction of marine life is a wake-up call for the planet. The biggest

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Panama VMS

Life Below Water: Improving fisheries transparency to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) set ambitious targets to address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, hunger, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation and decent work. SDG 14; Life Below Water, will be in the spotlight throughout 2020 as States come together at multiple international meetings to create and

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ocean scene

Fast-tracking Law-abiding Ships at Ports Could Help End Illegal Fishing

by Nicola Frost, Tony Long, Stephanie Juwana and Mansi Konar When the UN launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) five years ago, the world aligned around the need to end illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by 2020 (SDG 14.4). Seen then as an achievable target, it is now a deadline we’re going to miss. IUU fishing accounts for nearly

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Xing Hua Sheng NO669

On the frontline against illegal fishing in the world’s biggest ocean

Global Fishing Watch data assists US Coast Guard patrol in the Pacific. The 2019 patrol produced a threefold increase in vessel boardings and an eightfold increase in identified violations compared to 2018. Captain Adam Morrison has 12 years of experience patrolling the oceans of the world with the United States Coast Guard (USCG) during his 24

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Vessel track

Are unauthorized foreign vessels deterred from fishing inside Exclusive Economic Zones?

Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) are perhaps the largest property rights institution in the world, covering about 39% of the ocean’s surface and accounting for more than 95% of global marine fish catch. Because assigning property rights can improve both ecological and economic outcomes, EEZs could be an important institution for improving the sustainability and profitability

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ocean scene

For better or worse, technology is taming the high seas

Ahead of World Oceans Day 2019, Tony Long, Global Fishing Watch CEO, reflects on how a technology revolution is transforming our relationship with the global ocean, enabling us to see what’s happening beyond the horizon as never before, and unleashing a new realm of marine science. Good news for people and planet – as long

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Antha Williams

Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Antha Williams talks transparency

How do you see Global Fishing Watch (GFW) supporting Bloomberg’s Vibrant Oceans Initiative? Until Global Fishing Watch was launched, the world was relying on an inefficient, patchy network of antiquated, siloed, and proprietary data systems to monitor fishing activity around the world. The GFW system is the world’s first view of global fishing activity that

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albatross

The Tale of the Albatross and the Algorithm

The first-ever satellite mapping of fishing vessel behaviours has identified that very few vessels are using one of the key techniques to avoid accidentally killing albatrosses. Researchers hope a new analytics tool demonstrates that satellite data can help monitor efforts to reduce seabird mortality in fishing operations, and drive more transparency in general in the global fishing industry.

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Photo by Sweet Ice Cream Photography on Unsplash

More fishing inside, more sharks outside marine protected areas

Manuel Dureuil is a PhD student researching sharks and Kristina Boerder a postdoctoral fellow working on marine protected areas at Dalhousie University, Canada. In a recent publication in SCIENCE, Elevated trawling inside protected areas undermines conservation outcomes in a global fishing hotspot, Manuel, Kristina and a team of researchers from Dalhousie University, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre

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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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Argentina MPA

Global Fishing Watch data key to MPA victory in Argentina

Camellia Williams is a Lead Writer at Vizzuality. See her original blog post here.  We love hearing stories about people changing the world with the things we help make. This month we were contacted by Luli Masera. Luli is the co-founder of the Marine Conservation programme of Tompkins Conservation in Argentina and she had some extremely exciting

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