Tech giant Google Inc. along with environmentalists Skyruth and Oceania recently embarked on a daunting task of monitoring overfishing around the world's oceans.
The project necessitates a combined technological combination of cloud computing, utilization of big data and establishing large networks.
Dubbed Global Fishing Watch, the aim of the project is to provide citizens worldwide a simple platform to visualize, track and share fishing activities all around the world, addressing the need to monitor overfishing in almost 90% of the world's fishing grounds.
Google, through a mapping workshop held on Friday at the 2014 International Union for Conservation of Nature World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia, showed how satellite data can aid in providing a global view of commercial fishing.
Through Automatic Identification System traffic signals sent via VHF transmitters on vessels, data that include a ship's name, speed and direction are being analyzed.
Similar information is contained on websites such as Shipfinder.com. Non-fishing vessels are not part of the data feed.
To map vessels from the same country, You Tube offers a demonstration videos. Illegal fishing activities, for example, in Kiribati's Phoenix Islands Protected Area, one of those protected zones, could then be monitored.
Providing almost "real-time" data on overfishing, the watch has allowed authorities to determine particular areas of interest, backed by substantial information from 2012 to 2013. Some data include the destruction of the ocean ecosystem and the overfishing of Bluefin tuna.
"Satellite data is allowing us to make human interaction with the ocean more transparent than even before," Skytruth President John Amos said in a statement
He hoped that this new project could address the need to "detect" more movements around the world's oceans and water grounds, as well as promote a more systemic and concerted approach towards understanding global concerns on the world's ocean ecosystems.
