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cogs over water

Free and open data to inspire next wave of ocean solutions

Data and technology, News & Views / By

Global Fishing Watch establishes new portal to make application programming interfaces available to public Inequitable access to data and technology in support of ocean stewardship often leads to lost opportunities in decision-making and innovation—especially in under-resourced countries.  The international community continues to fall short in its efforts to conserve and sustainably use the ocean and […]

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Canada Recognizes Need for Strong and Consistent Transshipment Measures

Fisheries, News & Views, Policy & Compliance / By

Key ocean nation outlines how voluntary guidelines can set a clear policy framework for enhanced regulation, monitoring and control of at-sea transfer of fishing catch Fishing is a crucial part of life for people throughout the world and the industry contributes to the food security, economic prosperity and cultural identity of many people, including communities

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New report: How liberating ocean data will equip companies to avoid illegally caught seafood in their supply chains

News & Views / By

Geneva, Switzerland, 29 April 2022 – A report published today sets out how ocean data transparency can enable companies throughout seafood supply chains to avoid produce from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing The report, ‘Assessing Seafood Supply Chains: New Public-Private Partnership Will Support Companies in Assessing IUU Fishing Risks Using Vessel Data’, is part

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Torch Passed to Panama for Major Ocean Conference

Fisheries, News & Views, Transparency / By

H.E. Mr. Milciades Concepción Lopez, Minister of Environment, Republic of Panama With the global ocean under unprecedented pressure from overfishing, climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction, this week leaders in government, business, and civil society gathered in Koror, Palau for the Our Ocean Conference, one of the world’s leading forums to rally international support for

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New Techniques Reveal Fishing Vessel Identities in the Dark of Night

Data and technology, Fisheries, News & Views, Research and analysis / By

New Global Fishing Watch technology merges nighttime images with GPS datasets to observe vessels not broadcasting their positions When the sun sets, human activity on the ocean goes on. And every night, satellites snap a picture of all the activity taking place down below, including vessels at sea. Vessels often are equipped with bright lights

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On the High Seas, Global Fishing Watch Helps Focus Law Enforcement Patrols

Data and technology, Fisheries, Impacts, News & Views, Research and analysis / By

Annual international collaboration Operation North Pacific Guard targets illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing   For three years, Global Fishing Watch has worked with the United States Coast Guard (USCG), Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and their partners in addressing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the North Pacific as part of Operation

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New Horizons for Peru’s Squid Fishery

Data and technology, Fisheries, Impacts, News & Views, Research and analysis / By

Peruvian vessel monitoring system is shining a light on the large artisanal squid fleet in the Southeast Pacific Ocean, Peru’s second most important fishery. Peru recognizes the value of transparency to improve the monitoring and management of its rich fisheries. The country has publicly shared its vessel monitoring system (VMS) data since March 2018, but

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A Call for Collaboration to Tackle Forced Labor in Fishing

Fisheries, Impacts, News & Views, Research and analysis / By

Satellite technology can offer cost-effective solutions to ocean governance, but stakeholders must work together to be successful Forced labor is used in fishing fleets around the world—a fact that is becoming known all too well.  While not every fishing operation succumbs to such practices, unscrupulous employers will often commodify and exploit workers in order to

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Systematic Data Analysis Reveals False Vessel Tracks

Data and technology, News & Views, Research and analysis / By

Analysis of tracking data from automatic identification system broadcasts reveals vessel locations have been simulated for a number of ships, including military vessels. This false information could compromise vessel safety, decrease confidence in a crucial collision avoidance system and potentially spark international conflict. Over the years, data analysts working with Global Fishing Watch and SkyTruth

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New Map Revolutionizes Ocean Monitoring and Analysis

Data and technology, News & Views, Research and analysis, Transparency / By

To better visualize activity at sea, Global Fishing Watch engineers new technology to power updated map Despite its overwhelming benefits and the value it brings to all life on Earth, the ocean remains one of the least observed areas of our planet. We have been able to see very little of what’s happening across the

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Fisheries Transparency in the Mediterranean: Time to Emerge from the Dark

Fisheries, News & Views, Research and analysis, Transparency / By

Global Fishing Watch is using radar data to detect fishing vessels hidden from monitoring systems Global Fishing Watch is working to transform fisheries governance by harnessing satellite data to publicly show the movements of fishing vessels. A key data source for detecting apparent global fishing activity is satellite automatic identification system, or AIS—a collision avoidance

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Vessel track

Assessing Risk in Seafood Supply Chains Takes Technology and Teamwork

Data and technology, Fisheries, News & Views, Research and analysis, Transparency / By

New collaboration aims to shed light on the seafood industry through the development of new risk assessment tools. The opaqueness of modern global supply chains leaves a lot of room for bad behavior in the production of a myriad of products, including seafood. While greater transparency, along with sustainability and human rights best practices, are

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Fishing Vessel Transparency is Part of the Solution for Nature Protection in the Mediterranean and Black Sea

Fisheries, Impacts, News & Views, Policy & Compliance / By

Innovative techniques for monitoring fishing activity can help protect marine biodiversity Fishing is woven into the social, economic and cultural fabric of the Mediterranean. For millennia, it’s been a way of life for those residing in coastal communities, while seafood itself has played a fundamental role in local diets. Fisheries in the Mediterranean and Black

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The Overlooked Impact of Bottom Trawling

Fisheries, Impacts, News & Views, Research and analysis / By

A new study published by the scientific journal Nature is the first to quantify the potential release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the ocean from trawling and finds that trawling is pumping hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 into the ocean every year. Juan Mayorga, marine scientist and study coauthor, talks about the groundbreaking

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Half the Ocean: Updating The Global Footprint of Fisheries

Data and technology, Fisheries, News & Views / By

Global Fishing Watch’s updated fishing data offers new insight into the presence and behavior of the global fishing fleet In 2018, we published the first-ever global assessment of commercial fishing activity in Science. We tracked over 60,000 fishing vessels between 2012 and 2016, and estimated that fishing occurred on more than half of the ocean. 

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