
Satellites see big fishing’s footprint on the high seas - hispanic
http://digitaledition.baltimoresun.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=8839d4ae-7892-42e6-8e4a-77b6c2b67d1f
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notahacker
When I read "but they hover at the edge of marine protected areas" I'm
wondering if anyone's done any analysis to see whether the AIS signals for
some of those ships mysteriously disappear for periods which coincide with
them reaching the edge of marine protected areas...

(Edit: they have done this for a region of interest:
[http://globalfishingwatch.org/fishing-vessel-
behavior/signal...](http://globalfishingwatch.org/fishing-vessel-
behavior/signal-gaps/what-can-we-see-when-ais-signals-disappear/) )

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rdeboo
This absolutely happens. Fisher boats will turn off AIS routinely. The
nonprofit Global Fishing Watch is doing research to analyse AIS signals, and
determine if illegal fishing happens in protected areas. See
[http://globalfishingwatch.org/fishing-vessel-
behavior/signal...](http://globalfishingwatch.org/fishing-vessel-
behavior/signal-gaps/what-can-we-see-when-ais-signals-disappear/)

If you browse their site, there's also stories about other illegal activities,
such as laundering fish (it's being mixed with fish caught in legal areas on
sea). Also some boats are staffed with people that are essentially slaves.
They typically stay on sea permanently, and are fueled on sea.
([http://oceana.org/blog/how-global-fishing-watch-can-
combat-s...](http://oceana.org/blog/how-global-fishing-watch-can-combat-
slavery-thailand%E2%80%99s-fishing-industry))

~~~
notahacker
You posted about the same time as me!

(Having worked with people involved in EO and law before, I know it's not just
fishing boats where AIS being switched off in certain places may or may not be
evidence of other stuff happening)

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rdeboo
Actually a couple of people mention the GFW in this page. Good to see that
people are aware of the work being done.

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Theodores
Compare with chlorophyll levels in the ocean:

[https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30786](https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30786)

Essentially there are small diatom things at the bottom of this food chain
(and at the top of the ocean) that do the heavy lifting of converting sunlight
into energy. Plankton (diatoms and the many, many, many variants) then get
eaten by fish and then those fish get eaten by bigger fish and then the
Japanese/Chinese/Spanish fishing fleet scoops them all up.

Temperature is important to the phytoplankton so there are places like the
seas around Iceland that are extraordinarily rich for marine life. Also
important is what flows out of rivers and gets blown off the land, grasses on
land are therefore surprisingly important for fisheries - nitrogen has to come
somewhere.

In conclusion I am surprised at how different the two maps are of where the
fishing happens and where marine life as measured by chlorophyll happens.

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tda
The backstory behind the data gathering to make the map is a good read. They
have put a lot of effort to cleanse and understand the raw data. There are
plenty of nice articles on the what and why:
[http://globalfishingwatch.org/explainers/data/what-does-
an-a...](http://globalfishingwatch.org/explainers/data/what-does-an-ais-
message-look-like-anyway/)

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zeristor
Is this dataset available anywhere, it could be very interesting to play with.

~~~
notahacker
Data's here for registered noncommercial project use
[http://globalfishingwatch.org/research/research-
accelerator-...](http://globalfishingwatch.org/research/research-accelerator-
program/)

More generally, there's plenty of AIS data providers who'll sell you raw data
and have visualizations on their website, though there's a lot of cleanup work
to narrow it down to things like fishing activity. AIShub offers free feeds,
but only if you've got AIS data of your own to share (or maybe if you have a
particularly good reason and ask them very nicely)

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ythn
What are the empty circles and squares?

~~~
jake-low
Some of them (like the ones in the south Pacific and the one south of India)
are exclusive economic zones around islands. EEZ boundaries typically extend
200 nautical miles from shore (or until they run into another EEZ). See this
map [1].

Presumably the nations that control these zones aren’t fishing them
extensively, but other nations are fishing the international waters
surrounding them, which is why you can see certain EEZs as negative space on
the map in TFA.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusive_economic_zone#/media...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusive_economic_zone#/media/File%3ATerritorial_waters_-
_World.svg)

