75% of the world's industrial fishing is carried out secretly: Study

A recent study published in the journal Nature has revealed that a large portion of industrial activities in the oceans remains unknown to the public. This suggests that the risks to the marine environment are more severe than we thought. For instance, 75% of all industrial fishing, particularly in Asia, happens without any record or visual proof. Additionally, 25% of other activities, mainly related to energy, are not reported.

The research, led by Global Fishing Watch, utilized artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to create the first-ever global map of large ship traffic and coastal infrastructure. This led to the discovery of a significant amount of activity that was previously “hidden” from public monitoring systems.

"Until now, a new Industrial Revolution has been emerging undetected in our seas," said David Kroodsma, director of research and innovation at Global Fishing Watch and co-lead author of the study.

Undetected sea activities now revealed

David Kroodsma - Global Fishing Watch said, "A new Industrial Revolution has been emerging in our seas undetected, until now". "On land, we have detailed maps of almost every road and building on the planet. In contrast, the growth of our ocean has been largely hidden from public view. This study helps eliminate blind spots and shed light on the breadth and intensity of human activity at sea," he said.

A team of researchers from Global Fishing Watch, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Duke University, UC Santa Barbara, and SkyTruth in the USA studied 2 million gigabytes of satellite images from 2017 to 2021. They were looking for ships and infrastructure near the shore in coastal waters on six continents, where over three-quarters of all industrial activity happens.

They found ships that weren’t sending out their locations and were previously unknown. By using GPS data and five years of optical and radar images, they could identify these ships. With advanced computer systems, they figured out which of these ships were being used for fishing.

"Historically, we have poorly documented vessel activity, which limits our understanding of how we use the ocean, the world's largest public resource," said co-lead author Fernando Paolo, senior machine learning engineer at Global Fishing Watch.

 "By combining space technology with cutting-edge machine learning, we map unidentified industrial activity at sea on a scale never seen before," he explained.

Three-fourths of hidden global fishing vessels

Not all ships legally need to transmit their position, but the ones without public tracking systems, often called 'dark fleets', create a hindrance to the protection and management of natural resources. The study shows that public view hides 75 percent of the world's industrial fishing vessels.

Additionally, researchers discovered numerous hidden fishing vessels within marine protected areas and noticed a high concentration of vessels in waters, where many countries previously showed little or no vessel activity according to public monitoring systems.

"Publicly available data wrongly suggests that Asia and Europe have similar amounts of fishing within their borders. However, our mapping reveals that Asia dominates. We found that out of every 10 fishing boats on the water, seven were in Asia, while only one was in Europe," co-author Jennifer Raynor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported. "We have created the most complete public picture available of global industrial fishing by revealing the 'dark' vessels."

The study also illustrates the changes human activity is causing in the ocean. Coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a global fall in fishing activity by around 12 percent, including an 8 percent decline in China and a 14 percent drop elsewhere. However, the activity of transport and energy vessels stayed stable.

More oil exploitation and wind turbines

Instead, the study period saw an increase in marine energy development. Oil structures surged by 16 percent, while the number of wind turbines doubled. Turbines will outnumber oil platforms by 2021. Between 2017 and 2021, China marked the most striking growth in offshore wind energy, with a nine-fold increase.

Co-author Patrick Halpin, a professor of marine geospatial ecology at Duke University, said, "The footprint of the Anthropocene no longer limits itself to land. Access to a more complete view of ocean industrialization lets us observe new growth in offshore wind, aquaculture and mining, rapidly adding to the established industrial activities of fishing, shipping, and oil and gas. Our work reveals that the global ocean has become a busy, crowded and complex industrial workspace of the growing blue economy."

The study highlights the potential of this new technology to address climate change. Mapping all ship traffic will improve estimates of greenhouse gas emissions at sea, while infrastructure maps can inform wind development or help track marine degradation caused by oil exploration.

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