ⓒ Ben Dilley
The Issue
Mexico’s Revillagigedo National Park, one of the largest fully protected marine reserves on the planet, is a sanctuary for vibrant coral reefs, endangered wildlife and migratory giants like manta rays and whales. Since its designation as a no-take zone in 2017, the reserve has played a vital role in safeguarding the region’s extraordinary biodiversity, as confirmed by historical monitoring data. Yet despite its protected status, Revillagigedo remains vulnerable to occasional illegal incursions.
One vessel linked to recent suspicious activity in Revillagigedo is the Red Rooster III, a U.S.-flagged sportfishing boat based in San Diego, California. Data on Global Fishing Watch’s platform suggests the vessel has entered the marine protected area (MPA) undetected for years by apparently disabling its automatic identification system, or AIS. This practice, known as “going dark,” can obscure potential illegal fishing activity from authorities.
On January 27, 2025, the Red Rooster III entered the reserve without deactivating its AIS, as it had done on previous occasions, thus revealing two days of activity around Clarion Island. The vessel’s activity during this timeframe was also documented in social media posts from the vessel’s crew. The posts, dated to Jan. 29 and showing photos of large yellowfin tuna catches, were posted the same day the vessel was detected around Clarion Island, in the heart of the no-take MPA.
Moreover, in the days leading up to Jan. 29, the vessel had approached the reserve and apparently switched off its AIS. These patterns of vessel behavior alarmed Mexican authorities and environmental officials.
The Red Rooster III has frequented the waters around Revillagigedo for years — long before the reserve was designated a marine protected area in 2017. Nevertheless, the vessel has never faced sanctions in Mexico. Indeed, the only known penalty linked to the Red Rooster III is a $40,000 fine the vessel received in California in 2018 for the illegal possession and transport of fish from Mexican waters.
Our Work
In order to build a case against the Red Rooster III, authorities at the Revillagigedo National Park turned to satellite monitoring tools, such as those produced by Global Fishing Watch and Skylight. At the request of Revillagigedo management, Global Fishing Watch provided detailed historical data on the vessel’s movements dating back to 2018, including evidence of apparent repeated AIS disabling and incursions into protected waters.
The Global Fishing Watch data — complemented by additional imagery from the Skylight satellite platform — enabled authorities to reconstruct the vessel’s track patterns and correlate them with fishing activity captured in public social media posts. The evidence was critical in enabling the MPA’s legal department to file a formal complaint with Mexico’s environmental prosecutor, PROFEPA. The case is now under legal review.
The Revillagigedo investigation marks a turning point in how technology and transparency are helping marine authorities detect and respond to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, even from sportfishing vessels, which are typically smaller, and therefore, harder to detect. With support from Global Fishing Watch, Mexican agencies are using satellite data to hold offenders accountable and strengthen protections in the country’s most ecologically significant waters.
As a result of this case, Mexico is forming a new interagency working group to improve enforcement against IUU fishing in marine protected areas. While the Red Rooster III has so far evaded prosecution in Mexico, this ongoing investigation may set an important precedent demonstrating how public satellite data can be used to defend marine sanctuaries from even the most elusive threats.
