Attendees heard how vessel tracking data is helping authorities tackle the growing scourge of illegal fishing during Riviera Maritime Media’s Maritime communications that boost port, near shore and coastal security webinar
This event was held 31 March 2022 during Riviera’s Cyber & Vessel Security Webinar Week.
During the webinar, Oceana illegal fishing and transparency campaign manager Marla Valentine explained the importance of the worldwide automatic identification system (AIS) for tracking fishing vessels and identifying criminal activity.
Oceana analyses Global Fishing Watch data, which provides information on the position, track and activities of fishing vessels worldwide.
Global Fishing Watch, which was originally founded by Oceana, Google and SkyTruth and is now an independent organisation, collects AIS data from satellite providers such as Orbcomm and Spire..
“AIS data empowers Oceana to expose issues that are far from coastlines,” said Dr Valentine. To this data, Oceana applies intelligent algorithms and machine learning, using Google’s hardware, to extract information on fishing vessel activities. It uses this information to expose illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) for authorities.
“This is a huge risk for ocean ecosystems, as one in five fish caught is an IUU product,” said Dr Valentine. “Illegal fishing undermines coastal security, has an impact on fish populations and local economies, and threatens food supply chains.”
Oceana proactively monitors and highlights fishing trends and advocates for increased transparency to protect oceans. It uses AIS to detect vessels that may not have proper fishing registrations and to identify suspicious activities in maritime protected areas.
Dr Valentine said the advantages of AIS are it provides transparency at sea, with information on the location and movement of fishing vessels.
“Researchers, advocates, governments and others can use Global Fishing Watch and its AIS data to monitor fishing vessels and activities, while coastal nations can better monitor their waters,” she said.
The disadvantages are that not all vessels are required to use AIS by regulators; a ship’s crew can tamper with AIS, sending false information, or even turn AIS devices off.
“Only a small fraction, approximately 70,000 of the world’s estimated 2.8M fishing vessels, use AIS,” said Dr Valentine.
Around 52-85% of vessels larger than 24 m have AIS, but less than 1% of fishing vessels of less than 12 m have these units on board. For vessels of 12-24 m, less than 19% use AIS.
Another key caveat is that not every AIS message broadcast is recorded. Satellites must be overhead to receive AIS signals and terrestrial receivers only receive signals near shore.
In addition, AIS messages can interfere with each other in areas of high vessel density, and AIS devices vary in broadcast strength and frequency.
“Without AIS, a vessel is invisible to the public,” she added. This could indicate the vessel is involved in something suspicious or illegal, which the owner or captain wishes not to expose.
It can be dangerous for the vessel to have AIS turned off, as it would be almost invisible to international shipping, which could lead to a collision.
Oceana can pinpoint potential AIS avoidance by vessels not transmitting to satellites or coastal stations. The organisation uses AIS to track blacklisted vessels, document fisheries management successes and expose transhipping events - where a fishing vessel transfers its cargo to another vessel, often a ship with refrigeration units on board, to take it to port and unload it.
Oceana also encourages governments to release information from their national fish vessel monitoring system (VMS). AIS data also helps coastal states police their economic areas and fish stocks.
“Not all vessels follow the rules and some fish in protected areas,” said Dr Valentine. “Technology helps small island nations extract fines from fishing vessel owners” from illegal fishing in these protected areas. In one example, an island nation gathered US$2M in fines.
Oceana said there are a limited number of repeat offenders. Around 450 vessels owned by 20 companies represent at least a third of IUU and crimes in the fishing sector.
Some governments use this information to combat fishing crime. The European Union is a “global leader in combating seafood fraud,” said Dr Valentine. It has a red and yellow card system for suspicious activity, with companies and countries having one chance to improve their transparency and activities.
“The EU can ban countries from exporting their trade into the EU.” This seems to be working. “There has been a significant drop in imports of IUU fish. Other nations, such as Japan, US and the UK need to catch up,” said Dr Valentine.
VMS monitoring alone is insufficient to ensure vessels do not engage in IUU activities
Agree: 91%
Disagree: 0%
Unsure: 9%
AIS devices should be required on all vessels at all times
Agree: 83%
Disagree: 17%
Unsure: 0%
Vessels ’going dark’ threaten ocean conservation and maritime security
Agree: 100%
VMS and AIS ensure maritime security efforts
Agree: 73%
Disagree: 9%
Unsure: 18%
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