Saving Seafood

Global Fishing Watch responds to Ray Hilborn’s critiques of its study

March 27, 2018 — Global Fishing Watch welcomes Dr. Ray Hilborn’s recent statement in Seafood Source expressing his desire to work together to strengthen our collective insights into commercial fishing activity.

Furthering innovation and collaboration with the scientific community is at the heart of Global Fishing Watch’s mission to advance responsible stewardship of our oceans through increased transparency. Our Research Partners program, an interdisciplinary collaboration with some of the world’s leading marine science institutes, strives to improve fisheries management and science through the sharing of data, new research and cooperation.

Our recent study published in Science was produced with partners at the University of California, University of Santa Barbara, National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas project, SkyTruth, Dalhousie University, Stanford University, and Google. This research has produced the first-ever dataset of global fishing activities, as captured by satellites using automatic identification system (AIS) positions. Global Fishing Watch’s algorithm processed 22 billion AIS messages to identify more than 70,000 commercial fishing vessels, the sizes of and engine powers of these vessels, what type of fishing they engaged in, and where and when they fished down to the hour and kilometer.

The study and associated maps also depict global fishing activity with an unprecedented resolution – the fishing effort footprint is two to three orders of magnitude higher in spatial and temporal resolution than previous datasets – and reveals that industrial fishing covers more than 55 percent of the ocean’s surface – over four times the area covered by agriculture. This new high-definition global view of fishing would not have been possible without recent advances in computing power, an increase of satellites in orbit, and improved machine learning algorithms.

Importantly, by making all of the data in this study public and freely available, we aim to increase transparency in the commercial fishing industry and improve opportunities for sustainable management and informed decision making. We have also grown the data available within our transparency platform, including adding more AIS data, and through our government and research partners, including vessel monitoring system (VMS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data.

Dr. Hilborn says that vessels monitored for the study were largely tuna boats over 100 feet in length. Technically, these tuna boats are only a fraction of the 70,000 vessels monitored in our study. By far, the vast majority of vessels we observe are Chinese vessels operating in Chinese waters.

For the study, we also only track vessels that have AIS devices, and the fraction of fishing vessels with AIS varies considerably between regions of the ocean. In some regions, such as in Europe, almost all sizeable fishing vessels broadcast their locations. Similarly, in the high seas, we can capture most of the fishing activity, as a high fraction of high seas fishing vessels carry AIS. By contrast, in many developing countries, only a small number do. This fact makes our dataset incomplete, but it is still far more comprehensive than previous global datasets of fishing effort.

Read the full statement from Global Fishing Watch at Seafood Source

 

Shark bill could resolve debate over domestic fin market

March 20, 2018 — It’s fair to say that if the press release is coming from Oceana, it’s not going to have anything nice to say about the fishing industry. This is an outfit that seems to glory in perpetuating the misconception that reports on global fisheries apply equally to U.S. fishermen, fleets and practices as they do to foreign industry players.

That’s why when I saw Oceana had collaborated in the launch of Global Fishing Watch, I knew something outside of the worthy mission of combating IUU fishing was likely to come of it. We saw that in late February with the release of an article in Science that based its data on Global Fishing Watch.

Granted, if you look at the maps of aggregate data, you’ll see that U.S. coastal waters are not covered with the traffic Oceana deems damning. But not many average readers have time to dig that far or ask these kinds of questions about data sets. They see the headlines and condemn all fishing en masse.

The misconception that our fishing industry is just a small part of a globally mismanaged fishing industry is a perpetual grind against our highly regulated U.S. fleets.

Fishing is the seventh most regulated industry in the country, just barely outranking fishing is commercial air travel. And right behind it? Oil and gas extraction.

“I fish in North Carolina, and I’m regulated by the South Atlantic council, the Mid-Atlantic council, NMFS, the Atlantic States [Marine Fisheries Commission] and the state of North Carolina,” said Dewey Hemilright, a 2012 NF Highliner from Wanchese, N.C., and a supporter of a new bill that would preserve U.S. shark fishing.

The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act of 2018 (H.R. 524) is a bipartisan bill that aims to create a formal and transparent certification program for countries seeking to import shark products into the United States. Foreign nations would apply for certification from the U.S. Secretary of Commerce confirming that they have an effective prohibition on shark finning and have shark management policies comparable to ours.

Read the full story at the National Fisherman

 

Fishing Boats ‘Going Dark’ Raise Suspicion Of Illegal Catches, Report Says

March 12, 2018 — A new report raises concerns that when fishing vessels “go dark” by switching off electronic tracking devices, in many cases they are doing so to mask the taking of illegal catches in protected marine parks and restricted national waters.

In the report released Monday by Oceana, an international conservation group, authors Lacey Malarky and Beth Lowell document incidents of fishing vessels that disappear from computer screens as they shut off collision-avoidance beacons near restricted areas, only to have them reappear days or weeks later back in legal fishing grounds.

“This practice of vessels going dark is really widespread on a global scale,” Malarky tells NPR.

Malarky and Lowell used Global Fishing Watch, which aggregates automatic identification system, or AIS, signals to give an unprecedented view of global fishing activity. AIS signals can be viewed by the public through such websites as Vesselfinder.com.

Yet another system, known as Vessel Management System, or VMS, is not available to the public but is used by countries to monitor their fishing fleets. However, “some countries can’t afford it — developing countries like those in West Africa,” Malarky says. “So, a lot of developing countries rely on AIS to monitor their fishing fleet.”

Read the full story at NPR

 

Global Fishing Watch Partners With NOAA to End Illegal Fishing in Indonesia

January 17, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has entered into a partnership with the Global Fishing Watch to “improve understanding of the activity of fishing vessels in Indonesian waters.”

The two organizations looked at Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data from the Indonesian government and compared it to NOAA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer suite (VIIRS). According to a press release, they hoped to be able to use the data to “identify fishing vessels that are not picked up by other monitoring systems and to test and refine the use of VIIRS for identifying and distinguishing different types of fishing vessels.” What they found was that approximately 80% of VIIRS detections “could not be correlated to a vessel broadcasting VMS.”

The reason a vessel may not be broadcasting VMS is because they are under a 30 gross ton threshold, which was previously established by the Indonesian government. Or, a vessel could not be broadcasting VMS because they are fishing illegally.

“I’m excited for this opportunity to see the dark fleet,” Global Fishing Watch Research Program Director David Kroodsma said in a press release of vessels that don’t show up in VMS. “NOAA’s VIIRS data shows up vessels we can’t see by any other means and helps us to gain a more complete picture of fishing activity.”

The Global Fishing Watch will be using this new data to identify “dark vessels” that may be illegally fishing.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

Scientists Search for the Most Dangerous Places to Be a Shark

November 20, 2017 — Sharks may be top predators in the ocean, but they’re no match for human activity. People kill between 63 million and 273 million sharks per year—from deaths due to the shark-fin trade to creatures caught as bycatch of vessels seeking other creatures.

But saving sharks is no easy feat. There are around 400 species of sharks in the world and there is still much more to learn about these elusive beasts, including their populations, feeding areas, birthing grounds and more.

That’s where the marine conservation group Oceana steps in. In September, 2016, Oceana debuted an online data platform called Global Fishing Watch. The system uses signals broadcast from boats to identify all the ships at sea in hopes of protecting our marine menagerie. An algorithm combs though billions of these signals to map the paths of vessels and determine which ships are actively fishing, Emily Matchar at Smithsonian.com reported earlier this year. That data can be used by researchers and conservationists to learn about the size, location and techniques used by the global fishing fleet—even identify possible illegal fishing methods.

Read the full story at Smithsonian Magazine

Oceana hopes shark study will help reduce bycatches

November 17, 2017 — Between 63 million and 273m sharks are caught and killed every year, often as unintentional bycatch victims, the NGO Oceana said. But the conservation group hopes the use of technology demonstrated in a study released Thursday will help reduce that number, maybe leading to emergency hot spot fishing area closures or gear changes.

For more than three months in 2016, between June and September, Neil Hammerschlag, a professor at the University of Miami, and Austin Gallagher, a researcher at Beneath the Waves, another NGO, monitored the movements in the Atlantic Ocean — from the New England to the North Carolina coasts — of 10 blue sharks tagged with satellite tracking devices, according to an executive summary of the report.

Two of the sharks came in close proximity — within one kilometer– of likely fishing activity on no less than four occasions, the researchers found when they overlaid their movements with that of the more than 60,000 vessels tracked by Global Fishing Watch.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Oceana claims four countries violated EU law by fishing illegally in African waters

September 14, 2017 — Environmental nonprofit Oceana is claiming vessels from the European Union’s distant-water fleet have been fishing unlawfully in the waters off the coasts of Equatorial Guinea and Gambia.

Using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data collected by satellite and terrestrial receivers tool Global Fishing Watch, Oceana said it tracked 19 vessels from Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain fishing unlawfully for more than 31,000 hours in African waters between April 2012 and August 2015.

The European Union has signed fisheries partnership agreements with several African countries, offering financial and technical support in exchange for fishing rights. However, its agreements with Gambia and Equatorial Guinea are “dormant,” signifying countries that signed fishing partnership agreements “without having a protocol into force, for structural or conjonctural reasons.” Under rules set by the European Commission, EU vessels are not allowed to fish in waters of countries with dormant agreements.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Indonesia’s decision to share vessel tracking data ‘ill-advised,’ some say

August 22, 2017 — JAKARTA, Indonesia — Not everyone supports the Indonesian government’s decision to publish information on the location of fishing boats in its waters, via data mapping platform Global Fishing Watch, accessible to anyone with a computer.

The move, aimed at countering illegal fishing, has earned a backlash from some observers, who say it may prove “counterproductive.”

In June, Indonesia became the first country to share its Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data with Global Fishing Watch, a partnership between Google, conservation group Oceana, and SkyTruth, which uses tools like satellite imagery to monitor environmental issues. The platform provides both general data for the public and more detailed information seen only by authorities.

The move was praised by conservationists for its potential to deter illegal fishing. But some argue that publishing the data will reveal the location of Indonesia’s best fisheries, creating a run on the resources that further depletes them.

“Without any access restrictions to the data, fishing vessels will likely rush to sail to locations with the most fishing vessels, and this will result in massive exploitation of marine natural resources,” said Marthin Hadiwinata of the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen’s Union (KNTI).

“Isn’t that going to end up becoming unsustainable instead?”

Read the full story at Mongabay

A High-Tech Solution to Seafood Slavery and Illegal Fishing

July 20, 2017 — Inexpensive seafood can come at a high price. To make as much money as possible, it’s not uncommon for fishing vessels to spend more than a year at sea, fishing continuously, without supervision; some vessels spend as much as 525 straight days at sea, and others have logged 503 continuous days. This practice is only possible due to transshipment—the high-seas transfer of seafood catches between ships—and global fish stocks and human rights are taking the hit.

The U.S. is the world’s second largest market for seafood. Americans eat almost 16 pounds a year each, spending $96 billion (and that doesn’t include fish used in pet food). But 90 percent of that seafood is imported, and the odds are good that it was passed from one ship to another in international waters, where a whole range of illegal things may have happened.

Transshipment takes place when large fishing boats unload their catches to refrigerated cargo vessels, also known as reefers. It’s technically legal, and provides a cost-effective method for fishing boats to remain at sea and prolong their fishing trips without needing to head to port between catches. But because transshipment often happens far from monitoring eyes, it has also been linked to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (commonly referred to as “IUU”) fishing, along with human trafficking, slavery, and other criminal endeavors, including drug and illegal wildlife trade.

IUU fishing encompasses a grab bag of activities, not all strictly illegal. Fishing is illegal if it breaks national fishery laws or international fishing agreements—examples include fishing in prohibited areas or using illegal equipment. Unreported and unregulated fishing activities aren’t necessarily illicit—it might mean fishing in unregulated waters, or not reporting discarded fish. Illegal fishing can be difficult to accurately assess, but estimates say it’s responsible for $23 billion in economic losses.

In an effort to curb IUU, safeguard sovereign fish stocks, and strengthen ecological protections, NGOs and governments have taken an increasing global focus on transshipment practices in recent years. And several new projects are using technology to create the biggest and most accurate picture of transshipment to date.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

HÉCTOR SOLDI: Clear waters, clear hearts: Now is the time for more transparency in our oceans

July 5, 2017 — Last month, leaders from around the world gathered in New York City for the United Nations’ Ocean Conference. The UN Ocean Conference was an opportunity for countries to discuss how we will implement one of the organization’s key conservation goals — how to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”

As Peru’s vice minister of fisheries and aquaculture, I came to the UN Ocean Conference to announce a major new transparency measure we are undertaking to demonstrate our commitment to sustainable management of our marine resources.

Peru is making its national vessel tracking data publicly available through Global Fishing Watch, an organization that provides the first global view of commercial fishing activity. Global Fishing Watch already uses public broadcast data collected by satellite and terrestrial receivers to show the movement of vessels over time and identify fishing activity. The addition of our government’s data to the platform will provide the world with an even clearer view of fishing activity in our oceans.

We are also pleased to have been joined by Indonesia, which fulfilled a similar transparency commitment the country made in 2015. Indonesia’s vessel tracking data is now public and available for the first time through Global Fishing Watch.

Read the full opinion piece at The Hill