Brazil
Our work
Global Fishing Watch works closely with Brazilian authorities to ensure effective fisheries management and promote the sustainability of the country’s essential fish stocks. As our collaboration deepens, we are advancing efforts in monitoring and surveillance, and spearheading initiatives in transparency and biodiversity conservation. Our shared goal is to reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by enhancing internal processes, improving detection capabilities and fostering capacity building.
In April 2021, Brazil made a decisive move toward greater transparency by signing a memorandum of understanding to share its vessel monitoring system data on the Global Fishing Watch map. This agreement officially started our collaboration, strengthening the accountability of more than 1,500 vessels in Brazil’s national fleet.
While Brazil has benefitted from its own vessel tracking system since 2007 to monitor and control its national fishing fleet, the collaboration with Global Fishing Watch has further enhanced the country’s ability to verify fishing authorizations, oversee activities and evaluate fisheries management measures. We are also honored to participate in the revision process of the National Program for Tracking Fishing Vessels by Satellite and support its respective legislation, providing technical information and connecting with government agencies to update regulations.
Highlights
Our work encompasses collaborations with a range of in-country stakeholders, including the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture (MPA), the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and the Brazilian Navy.
Vessel Tracking: Making vessels publicly visible
Since the signing of the memorandum of understanding in 2021, the tracking data of all industrial vessels—and some artisanal ones—has been visible on our map. This transparency is the cornerstone of Brazil’s improved national fisheries management and has been embraced by the private sector, which voluntarily opened the fishing areas and activities of its vessels to public scrutiny through the Open Tuna initiative.
Operational Support: Strengthening national and international surveillance
Global Fishing Watch provides data to support monitoring operations under the different competencies of government agencies. These operations include ICMBio's monitoring of marine protected areas, IBAMA's enforcement actions and the MPA's internal processes, such as the renewal of fishing permits and the transmission of data to the international fisheries bodies of which the country is a member.
Marine Protection: Supporting effective conservation
To boost the country's efforts to preserve marine resources, we are supporting the development of technicians and managers in leveraging our technology to improve operative capabilities. Our capacity development efforts have helped Brazil monitor some of its largest oceanic MPAs such as São Pedro e São Paulo and Trindade e Martin Vaz by using our tools to improve management. Our data has also been crucial in discussions about creating the Albardão marine protected area in southern Brazil through an analysis of vessel activity delivered in 2024.
Capacity Development: Ensuring technology adoption
Over the past few years, over 100 Brazilian government agents have participated in training sessions on our technological tools, integrating them into their daily work to improve internal analyses that include issuing certificates of legal origin, monitoring marine protected areas, renewing fishing permits and defining fishing areas and ports.
Policy Support: Improving regulation on vessel tracking
Global Fishing Watch supports the interministerial vessel monitoring system working group, created by the Brazilian Government to review the current monitoring regulation and prepare a proposal to update the national tracking system. By applying a set of best practices on monitoring and surveillance, the group aims to combat IUU fishing and enhance transparency of fisheries management.
Vessel information: Completing the picture of vessel activity
Ongoing efforts are focused on including Brazil’s public vessel registry on the Global Fishing Watch map, allowing users to search a vessel by registry code and filter by license type.
About Brazil
Brazil’s vast coastline and more than one million fishers—most of whom are artisanal—highlight the importance of the fishing industry here. Transparency and sustainability are crucial to the country’s socio-economic stability, as approximately 3.5 million people, half of them women, depend directly and indirectly on fisheries and aquaculture.
With more than 25,000 marine fishing vessels—90 percent of which are artisanal—Brazil’s main fishing activities include tuna longlines and hand lines; shrimp and whitemouth croaker trawls, sardine and mullet caught by purse seines, and lobster, octopus and crab harvested with traps.Â
As a key regional player, Brazil actively participates in international forums on fisheries and marine conservation. Its managers and researchers contribute to the work of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, where Brazil has adopted management measures for species such as bigeye tuna and blue shark. The country is also a prominent voice in discussions on the international trade of species listed under the Convention on Internacional Trade in Endangered Species, as well as in negotiations within the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
Despite these efforts, Brazil’s challenges in national fisheries management persist due to an absence in data, underscoring the importance of our partnership in bridging these information gaps and improving transparency in the country’s management practices.