Saving Seafood

Global Commercial Fishing Falls 6.5% to End-April Due to Coronavirus

May 12, 2020 — Global commercial fishing activity for 2020 fell by around 1 million hours as of end-April, a 6.5% decline over the two previous years, the result of plummeting demand caused by coronavirus lockdowns, according to Global Fishing Watch.

Fishing fleets spent 14.4 million hours on the water for the year so far to April 28, a decline from an average of 15.4 million hours for the same year-to-date periods of 2018 and 2019, according to the nonprofit organization that tracks fishing operation worldwide.

Global Fishing Watch collects and analyses data from onboard identification systems known as AIS, which is used by large ships to broadcast their position and avoid collisions.

The closures of many hotels and restaurants – a large market sector for fisheries – and the logistical challenge of accessing necessary port services contributed to declining prices and plummeting demand, said Tyler Clavelle, a data scientist at Global Fishing Watch.

Much of the drop can be traced to China. While China’s industrial fleet started January more active than years past, there was a large drop after the Lunar New Year holiday in late January. For the two months to March 25, China’s fishing activities fell by 1.2 million hours, a 40% percent drop from the average for the same period the previous two years.

Read the full story from Reuters at The New York Times

Big Brother is watching at Global Fishing Watch

January 2, 2020 — In 2016, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation joined with Google, Oceana and Environmental Defense, and other funding partners to create a mapping and data platform called, Global Fishing Watch. The system currently tracks over 65,000 fishing vessels worldwide. In November 2019, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released the “Global Atlas of AIS-based Fishing Activity,” utilizing the data.

“With the data Global Fishing Watch provides, governments, fishery management organizations, researchers and the fishing industry can work together to rebuild fisheries and protect critical marine habitats,” De Caprio says, on the GFW website. It appears the FAO agrees.

Global Fishing Watch uses AIS and other tracking systems, such as government run vessels monitoring systems to follow the activities of large fishing vessels in near real time, and the UN is using that data in its report. At the start, the technology was intended to help nations to stop illegal fishing off their coasts, assist in certification of sustainably harvested seafood, and keep vessels out of marine protected areas.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

‘No place to hide’ for illegal fishing fleets as surveillance satellites prepare for lift-off

September 3, 2019 — The prospect of monitoring every vessel at sea in real time has moved a step closer to reality as a new generation of surveillance satellites takes to the skies.

The satellites are being launched by a small number of private companies with the potential to transform the monitoring of marine fisheries. One of those companies is Capella Space, which will launch a constellation of 36 surveillance satellites into orbit starting in December, following successful trials with a pilot satellite.

Capella’s “minibar-sized satellites” are equipped with synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) sensors, which ping signals down to Earth and use the information bouncing back to generate radar images. Though radar pictures lack the detail of optical images and cannot currently be used to identify specific vessels, they can detect the presence of any ship in the ocean, day or night, whatever the weather.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Sharks Have Few Places To Hide From Fishing, Study Shows

July 24, 2019 — Ocean-dwelling sharks often like to hang out in areas that also get frequented by industrial fishing ships, which puts them at grave risk of being caught either for food or as bycatch.

That’s according to a new study in the journal Nature that mapped the activity of 23 shark species and fishing vessels around the globe.

Researchers tracked more than 1,500 sharks with satellite tags and combined that data with information on ship movements taken from safety technology that vessels use to avoid collisions at sea.

“Tens of millions of these pelagic sharks are being caught by industrialized fisheries in areas where there’s little or no management, and some populations have declined as a result,” says David Sims, a U.K.-based marine ecologist at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth and the University of Southampton.

Fishing vessels can catch sharks accidentally, because their long lines can extend for miles and have more than 1,000 hooks.

Read the full story at New England Public Radio

Latest Oceana report showcases power of Global Fishing Watch

June 13, 2019 — A South Korean-flagged fishing vessel with a history of illegal fishing and involvement in human rights abuse cases, repeatedly stopped transmitting its public tracking data while off the coast of Argentina, Oceana says in a brief report released Thursday that identifies several suspicious activities observed with the help of the recently enhanced Global Fishing Watch (GFW) program.

Oceana said GFW detected 77 gaps in Automatic Identification System transmissions by the vessel, which it doesn’t name, over a nearly five-year period, including four inside its national waters. One gap lasted almost 12 days, ending when the Argentine Coast Guard captured the vessel for fishing illegally inside Argentina’s waters.

GFW — a program started by Oceana, SkyTruth and Google — uses a combination of satellite and radar technology and vessel monitoring system data to support the enforcement of laws that prohibit fishing out of season or in protected areas. The group now reports maintaining about 20 staff distributed globally, with individuals and small teams spread across the US, Asia, Europe, Central and South America.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Chile will provide vessel data to Global Fishing Watch

May 16, 2019 — The government of Chile has signed an agreement to make its national vessel tracking data publicly available through the Global Fishing Watch (GFW) map in order to improve transparency for its fishing industry.

In a joint statement made by Chile’s National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca), international conservation group Oceana and the GFW, officials confirmed that tracking information on more than 1,500 commercial vessels will be available in near real-time.

The announcement follows a modernization of Sernapesca, which included parameters for a national Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) for fishing vessels. Officials see this development as an important element in fighting illegal fishing activities.

“President [Sebastián] Piñera’s government program instructed us to redouble our efforts to fight illegal fishing and work for the adequate management and sustainability of fishery resources,” Sernapesca National Director Alicia Gallardo said. She added that part of her goru’s strategy is to encourage citizens and other players to get involved in the protection of its oceanic resources.

The statement said the announcement was the fruit of an extended campaign by Oceana, which “has been working for many years to increase transparency in the fisheries sector and to establish large marine parks,” Liesbeth van der Meer, vice president of Oceana Chile, said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

GFW’s new data cell to combat illegal fishing with $5.9m gift from Bloomberg

February 15, 2019 — Global Fishing Watch (GFW) has taken another step in its effort to detect and prevent illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, launching a new data and analysis unit with the help of a $5.9 million, four-year commitment from the charity started by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Tong Long, GFW’s CEO, announced the new operation at the Seafood and Fisheries Emerging Technologies conference, in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday.

“The next five years will bring an inflection point for ocean data thanks to dramatically increased opportunities for satellite tracking, more public tracking, information sharing, processing power and advances in machine learning,” he said. “Our analytical cell will translate this flow of data and technology into insights and evidence that can help coastal and under-resourced states better understand fishing activity, improve governance and aid monitoring of marine protected areas.”

Founded in 2015 through a collaboration between Oceana, SkyTruth and Google, GFW has been using a combination of satellite and radar technology and vessel monitoring system data to support the enforcement of laws that prohibit fishing out of season or in protected areas. The group now reports maintaining about 20 staff distributed globally, with individuals and small teams spread across the US, Asia, Europe, Central and South America.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

World’s Largest Fish Factory Vessel Stays on IUU List

February 6, 2019 — Following an investigation by Oceana, the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) has decided to keep the fish factory vessel Damanzaihao (now named Vladivostok 2000) on its list of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels. The organization has also issued warnings to China, Panama and Cook Islands for providing assistance to the vessel.

The Commission has currently 15 members: Australia, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Cuba, Ecuador, E.U., Denmark, South Korea, New Zealand, Peru, Russia, Chinese Taipei, the U.S. and Vanuatu.

Oceana investigated the Damanzaihao’s movements using Global Fishing Watch’s mapping platform. “Oceana applauds SPRFMO’s decision and views this as an important example of how transparency at sea can help enforce rules that combat IUU fishing,” said Beth Lowell, deputy vice president of U.S. campaigns at Oceana. “With the help of technology, we can see what vessels are doing beyond the horizon and take steps, like Oceana did, to hold the responsible parties accountable.”

The Vladivostok 2000, currently flagged to Moldova, is one of the world’s largest vessels with a history of changing names and reflagging to different countries. Originally designed as an oil tanker measuring 228 meters, the vessel was rebuilt to function as a one-stop-shop fish processor, with the ability to store, freeze, process and transfer fish. According to a New York Times article, the vessel (named Lafayette and flying a Russian flag when the article was published in 2012) can process up to 547,000 metric tons of fish each year.

Read the full story at Maritime Executive

 

Data noose tightening on “handful” of nations responsible for overfishing

January 24, 2019 — Tony Long is the CEO of Global Fishing Watch, a freely accessible and near real-time digital map of the global ocean aimed at exposing illegal fishing. With Japan, Peru, and Indonesia all recently agreeing to share data with Global Fishing Watch as part of an effort to combat illegal fishing, Long is now pushing for more countries to contribute data. Additionally, Long’s office is working with governments and NGOs to make the Global Fishing Watch map more complete and allow the tracking of vessels guilty of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. 

SeafoodSource: How important are the ongoing World Trade Organization negotiations on eliminating fishing and fuel subsidies in the fight against IUU fishing?

Long: Cutting or eliminating fuel subsidies are an important fisheries management measure because … fuel subsidies are part of the overcapacity equation – especially for distance fleets and also high-seas fishing. People following the negotiations closely tell me that there are disagreements within the WTO as to whether this is the case. It is vital that this matter can be resolved during the negotiations.

SeafoodSource: You point to a “handful of wealthy countries” as being culpable in IUU fishing. Is this a corporate or a government problem?

Long: It’s both, but ultimately, governments are the ones that allow IUU fishing practices in their fleets to continue. There are many factors beyond harmful subsidies, including weak penalties, poor enforcement and licensing flags of convenience that allow IUU fishing to occur. That said, individual corporations also have huge responsibility. In particular, they can help drive out practices such as bonded labor and slavery at sea, they can demand cleared provenance to their catch by demanding complete and proper tracking of vessels, catch documentation and open licensing as part of their contract with the supply chain. The recent green card given to Thailand is a good example of government, corporations, and NGOs working together to improve a dire situation.

SeafoodSource: According to an article in Science Advances, “On the high seas, 97 percent of all such fishing effort detectable by AIS is conducted by vessels flagged to higher-income nations. Dominance of this high-seas industrial fishing effort at the level of flag nation was highly uneven. The vast majority (86 percent) of this effort can be attributed to only five higher-income countries/entities, in rank order high to low: China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Spain.” Have rich countries also been willing to work with you and to share information?

Long: We have a [memorandum of understanding] signed with Japan to improve research and understanding of IUU fishing in the North Pacific and share data. We have staff in Korea and Taiwan to take forward the benefits of transparency. [And] we are in the very early stages of working with a coalition of European Union-based NGOs to look at the E.U. fleet and coastal states where [those vessels] fish. We are engaging with NGOs and foundations interested in China in order to identify a strategy on working with China.

Read the full Seafood Source