Global Fishing Watch: mapping hidden fishing fleets from space
Global Fishing Watch and university partners combined five years of radar and optical satellite images with ship-tracking data and used machine learning to find vessels and offshore structures. They found that about three-quarters of the world's industrial fishing vessels were not visible in public tracking systems.
What they learned
About 75% of industrial fishing vessels were invisible to public tracking
From public sources: comparing satellite images from 2017 to 2021 with ship-tracking broadcasts, the team found about 75% of industrial fishing vessels and over 25% of transport and energy vessels were missing from public tracking. Not all boats are legally required to broadcast, so 'hidden' does not always mean illegal.
The problem
Many boats don't broadcast their position, so overfishing and other activity at sea go unseen.
What the AI does
Models scan satellite radar images to spot vessels and structures, then check them against ship-tracking broadcasts to see which ones were hidden.
Sources
- Sentinel-1 and AI reveal 75% of fishing vessels not tracked, European Space Agency (24 Jan 2024)
- Paolo et al., Satellite mapping reveals extensive industrial activity at sea, Nature (2024)