September 20, 2016 — Dalhousie University researchers have played an important part in bringing to life a ‘revolutionary’ new website that allows anyone with internet to monitor and track commercial fishing activity around the world, as well as potentially identify illegal fishing.
Unveiled last week, Global Fishing Watch is a joint project between Google, digital mapping non-profit SkyTruth and ocean conservation group Oceana. It’s funded by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.
The website allows users to view a world map with more than 35,000 major fishing vessels moving in “near real time,” which is 72 hours from the present time.
Engineers behind Global Fishing Watch collaborated with researchers at Dalhousie University in the process of developing new ways to identify and hone in on fishing vessel activity, said Jacqueline Savitz, vice-president for U.S. and Global Fishing Watch at Oceana.
Global Fishing Watch will also eventually incorporate algorithms developed at Dalhousie, to provide a more complete picture of fishing activity on the high seas.