On Monday last week I attended an RGS East lecture given by Stephen Akester at Norwich School. It was well attended.
It included an outtake from David Attenborough's 'Ocean' film which he had made and appeared in.
He shared the Global Fishing watch website.
The site has a map showing the locations of fishing fleets. Stephen outlined how this could be used to track illegal or unsustainable activity, particularly off the coast of South America, for example where ocean upwelling produces very productive fisheries which are relied on by other animals in the food chain.
Details of the map:
The Global Fishing Watch map is the first open-access online tool for visualization and analysis of vessel-based human activity at sea. Anyone with an internet connection can access the map to monitor global fishing activity from 2012 to the present for more than 65,000 commercial fishing vessels that are responsible for a significant part of global seafood catch.We use data that is broadcast using the automatic identification system (AIS) and collected via satellites and terrestrial receivers. We then combine this information with vessel monitoring system data provided by our partner countries. We apply our fishing detection algorithm to determine “apparent fishing effort” based on changes in vessel speed and direction. The heat map grid cell colours show how much fishing happened in that area, allowing for precise comparison.
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