In turn, the fishing data revolution we’ve helped unleash has triggered a scientific revolution, unlocking previously unavailable research opportunities and spurring innovation. This deceptively simple achievement alone has enormous potential to improve ocean management and conservation, most of which is yet to be realised. Using the sort of technology previously only available to intelligence agencies, at a fraction of the cost, we apply machine learning to vessel GPS data – more than 60 million points of information per day – to determine which vessels are fishing when and where, as well as what type of gear they’re using, allowing us to flag suspicious activity. Once blind, we can now see with ever-increasing clarity what’s happening both on and in the water.Īnd at Global Fishing Watch, we’re harnessing this revolution to offer governments, communities, industry and civil society the tools and insights they need to better monitor fishing activity, manage ocean resources for sustainability, and drive transparency and accountability in markets and business. New technologies powering the Fourth Industrial Revolution are driving a data and information revolution set to fill the knowledge gap and transform our understanding and management of the ocean.Ī rapid proliferation of sensors carried by new generation satellites, ocean-going drones, buoys and boats is producing a flood of new data on the back of which new processing technologies are unlocking powerful new insights. The good news is that the long-hidden global ocean is now quickly coming into view. Fishermen set out for sea after summer fishing suspension ends, Zhejiang Province, China, 2014. Largely unseen, a handful of wealthy nations are over-exploiting valuable resources on an industrial scale, threatening the food security of 3.2 billion people who depend on fish for protein, not to mention the livelihoods of millions of artisanal coastal fishers.Īccounting for 20% of the global catch, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing robs governments and legitimate fishermen of seafood, and inadequate governance reduces fisheries production by $83 billion annually.Īccording to the recent IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, humanity has significantly altered two-thirds of the marine environment, and 93% of all fish stocks are fished at either maximum sustainable or unsustainable levels.Īnd while the global fishing fleet increased from 1.7 million to 3.7 million boats between 19, for the amount of effort expended, the average catch fell more than 80%.Īfter centuries of taking the ocean’s bounty for granted, we are running up against its limits. Still akin to areas marked apocryphally on old maritime charts as ‘Here be dragons’, they are effectively lawless – a place of abuse and crime, and now decline. ![]() Yet the high seas present perhaps the biggest management challenge of all the global commons. Source: ‘The Science We Need for the Ocean We Want’, IOC Here be dragons Without good science, technology transfer, ocean literacy and well-informed decision-making, we will never achieve the clean, safe, open, healthy, productive and resilient ocean we need for our future prosperity. ![]() In response, the UN has designated 2021-2030 as the Decade of Ocean Science, aiming to strengthen international cooperation on research and innovation, restore ocean health and deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. It’s been said that less is known about the seafloor than about the surface of Mars and these findings throw the major knowledge gaps hampering marine governance into stark relief. Source: ‘The Science We Need for the Ocean We Want’, IOC Its recent report, ‘ The Science We Need for the Ocean We Want ’, found only 0.04% to 4% of total research spend worldwide goes to ocean science, and revealed major disparities in national capacity to conduct research, with Small Island Developing States especially limited. How much do we really know about the global ocean? According to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), not much. Good news for people and planet – as long as governments and industry embrace transparency, democratise data and pursue sustainability. Ahead of World Oceans Day 2019, Tony Long, Global Fishing Watch CEO, reflects on how a technology revolution is transforming our relationship with the global ocean, enabling us to see what’s happening beyond the horizon as never before, and unleashing a new realm of marine science.
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