![]() According to the data, the vessel turned off its AIS system before entering the reserve and turned on its system after exiting. Over 20, an Australian commercial fishing vessel called the Corinthian Bay appeared to enter a no-take marine reserve on 10 separate occasions. The ship was dark for 15 days before it began transmitting signals again on the reserve's eastern border. The region is one of the most biodiverse on the planet and hosts a number of lucrative fish. In October 2014, the vessel was transmitting AIS data on the western boundary of the Galápagos Marine Reserve. "These four case studies are just the tip of the iceberg."Ī Panamanian ship called the Tiuna was the first fishing boat they identified going dark. "It really is happening everywhere in every ocean and in a lot of countries' national waters," says Malarky. In the specific cases Malarky and her co-author Beth Lowell analyzed, ships were transmitting AIS signals for some of the time, and algorithms were then used to identify when the signal ceased for longer than 24 or 48 hours. Illegal fishing also threatens a number of marine protected areas that are set up to restrict fishing activities in order to keep marine animal populations healthy, but which may be difficult for many countries to patrol. really impacts local communities that need oceans to survive."Ī report released by Greenpeace last year estimated that illegal fishing in West Africa alone costs the region more than $2 billion annually. "It's a big deal for countries that rely on seafood for their livelihoods. "Illegal fishing is a global problem that's threatening the sustainability of our world's fisheries," says Lacey Malarky, an analyst for Oceana and co-author on the report. They say the case studies are examples of how AIS data can be used to track illegal fishing activities in the future. In a new report from Oceana, researchers detail examples of how they used AIS collected by conservation group Global Fishing Watch to track four fishing vessels that were "going dark," or trying to avoid detection. AIS was established so large ships could broadcast their locations and avoid collisions. The data comes from a monitoring network called the Automatic Identification System, or AIS. Ocean conservationists from watchdog group Oceana are hunting for illegal fishing activity, and one new method they are exploring for catching offenders is satellite data.
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