How to spot the secretive activities of rogue fishing boats

[Judi Lynn]

For years it’s been impossible to see illegal acts happening at sea, from overfishing to human rights abuses. Now that’s changing, says Jacqueline Savitz.

By Jacqueline Savitz
7 June 2018



The next time you cook a fish or order some seafood at a restaurant, think about the image above.

It’s a snapshot of all the fishing happening on the ocean over a six-month period. If you zoomed in, you’d see thousands of blue dots, each showing one instance of likely fishing activity at one point in time. This image captures almost 20 million hours of commercial fishing by tens of thousands of vessels around the world. As we approach World Oceans Day this week, it’s sobering to reflect on the fact that industrial fishing now occurs in more than 55% of the ocean – an area more than four times bigger than all the land used for farming.

The vast majority of fishing vessels follow the rules governing fishing – but many are not, and these bad actors can cause a lot of damage.

More:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180607-how-to-spot-the-secretive-activities-of-rogue-fishing-boats