The Ecuadoran government demonstrated a strong commitment to protecting its waters from illegal activity today when it handed down a $5.9 million fine to a Chinese refrigerated cargo vessel owner and a four year prison sentence to its captain for the illegal transport of sharks and shark fins in the protected waters of the Galapagos. […]
Octavio Aburto of Scripps Institution of Oceanography (left) and his colleagues, Juan Mayorga of UC Santa Barbara and Enric Sala of Pristine Seas are using Global Fishing Watch to understand the economic impacts of establishing a new Marine Protected Area in Mexican waters. [UPDATE: On October 5, 2017, the Mexican government announced its intent to expand the Revillagigedo marine park into
There were a whole lot of fishing vessels inside the Motu Maha no-take marine reserve last year, and every one of them had a reason to be there. As part of our series on deciphering suspicious behavior, we asked Dave Stevens, Senior Analyst for the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries, to help us understand
What’s Happening inside Motu Maha Marine Reserve? Read More »
After our recent post Deciphering Suspicious Behavior: It’s not always what it seems, we thought it would be insightful to post a few examples of vessel behavior that looked suspect, but turned out to be easily explained on closer inspection. Often, a look at the other vessels in the area can help explain what’s going
Fishing in a Marine Park? Look Again. Read More »
Unusual fleet behavior off West Africa spurs our analyst to investigate Just because something appears suspicious, doesn’t mean laws are being broken. Jumping too quickly to conclusions could embroil a legally operating fishing fleet in unwarranted investigations or accusations. Equally damaging would be to rush in on a crime without solid evidence and lose the
Witness to a Crime? Read More »
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 »
The sheer size of the ocean poses one of the biggest challenges to curbing illegal fishing, especially for a tiny island nation like Palau whose territorial waters encompass a swath of ocean nearly the size of Texas. With just three vessels comprising the government’s patrol fleet, there has been little hope of defending Palauan waters
Right on Target, Satellite Monitoring Guided a Police Chase on the Open Ocean Read More »
We’re in the business of putting the simple truth on the table for others to see. So for us, there’s nothing more rewarding than learning that the information we share has been used to accomplish something important. In early 2016, observations we posted on the SkyTruth blog initiated a chain of events that exposed a fleet
Our Analyst Nets Another IUU Bust Read More »
