Vessel Detections Dataset from Sentinel-1 SAR
- Release:
- Tags: Data Download, Improvement
Global Fishing Watch has released updates to the Data Download Portal. Anyone can now:
- Download Vessel detections from Sentinel-1 SAR (Synthetic-aperture radar)
- This dataset incorporates updated information derived from the models developed as part of the Paper Paolo et al. 2024, Nature. It includes Industrial vessels detected with satellite imagery between 2017 and 5 days ago and classified with deep learning.
- Vessel detections are matched with vessels transmitting AIS. When there is a matching, AIS data can identify vessel details like vessel type, but blind spots exist due to varying regulations, illicit activity, and restricted access to terrestrial AIS data. Unmatched SAR vessel detections fill these gaps in coastal waters.
- Download SAR detection footprints
- Detection footprints are areas within each satellite scan (or scene) that our system uses to perform detections. These filters help to keep relevant detections and exclude data that may be inaccurate.
- Download the polygon in WKT format to identify the area where these detections were calculated.
- Examples of use cases for this data
- Monitor vessel presence (both fishing and non-fishing) in areas of interest such as marine protected areas (MPAs), exclusive economic zones (EEZs), inshore exclusion zones (IEZs) and Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs).
- Assess presence of vessels that don’t show up on cooperative tracking systems—including automatic identification system (AIS) and vessel monitoring system (VMS)—near vulnerable marine ecosystems and essential fish habitats.
- The discrepancy with data shown on the Global Fishing Watch Map
- In the Map, if you enable the Radar vessel detection SAR layer, you can filter by AIS unmatched and SAR Vessel type that includes “Likely non fishing”, “Likely fishing” and “Unknown” which is based on the fishing_score. In the Data Download portal we are returning the value of the fishing score, so if you want to get the same group as in the Map, you need to filter as follow:
- <= 0.1: Likely non fishing
- >= 0.9: Likely fishing
- In between: Unknown
- In the Map, if you select a region and download the SAR vessel detection data, you get less information compared to the Data Download Portal. For example, you don’t get length_m or any of the scores like presence_score, matching_score,or fishing_score.
- In the Map, if you enable the Radar vessel detection SAR layer, you can filter by AIS unmatched and SAR Vessel type that includes “Likely non fishing”, “Likely fishing” and “Unknown” which is based on the fishing_score. In the Data Download portal we are returning the value of the fishing score, so if you want to get the same group as in the Map, you need to filter as follow:
Find our supporting information on the Global Fishing Watch website. Share feedback through our public Canny board. Email [email protected] for any question.
Release – Friday, 31 May 2024