Data Vendor Transition

Global Fishing Watch has completed its migration to Kpler as its unified automatic identification system, or AIS, data provider.

Why the vendor switch
Global Fishing Watch previously relied on Spire, ExactEarth and MarineTraffic to provide AIS data. As the maritime data industry consolidated, Kpler acquired both Spire and MarineTraffic, which had previously absorbed ExactEarth. Kpler then folded these legacy sources into a single, unified infrastructure. Migrating to this consolidated platform was the logical next step for our operations.

Impact on Global Fishing Watch products
At the time of the switch on April 22, 2026, the AIS coverage in our products shifted unevenly across regions. While coverage remained constant or only decreased slightly in most areas, the South China Sea saw a significant decrease that impacted our data products. Moving forward, Kpler is projected to expand its global AIS coverage annually.

This transition brings several key improvements:

• • A more robust and efficient data ingestion and delivery pipeline.
  • A single, high-quality source of AIS data that powers all of our product offerings.
  • Strong and expanding AIS coverage for our products.

Details

• • At a global scale, there was a data volume decrease when we switched from our old infrastructure to the new configuration.The volume drop is the result of switching data feeds and does not represent an actual decline in activity.
  • Proceed with caution when comparing data before versus after April 22, 2026, particularly when analyzing activity in the South China Sea. Any comparison that spans this date may reflect the provider transition rather than genuine changes in vessel activity.
  • China’s annual fishing moratorium is a separate and seasonal effect. The moratorium effects are distinct from the provider switch but, since it started days after the provider switch, it is difficult to distinguish each individual effect within the data. 
  • Apparent fishing effort in the region declines each year during China’s annual fishing moratorium during the week leading up to May 1.

Next steps
The Kpler feed is live and powering all Global Fishing Watch tools. For questions about coverage or data quality following this transition, contact [email protected].