Google joins fight against illegal fishing

Technology giant Google has taken the battle against illegal fishing online, with the company unveiling a tool on Friday that harnesses satellite data to track thousands of boats in real time. A prototype interactive tool, which was developed in conjunction with environmental activists SkyTruth and marine advocacy group Oceana, was unveiled at the once-a-decade World Parks Congress in Sydney. The tool uses data points from the Automatic Identification System network, which picks up GPS broadcasts of a vessel’s location to map movements. The prototype has tracked just over 3,000 fishing vessels, with a public tool set to be released down the track.

While many of the environmental trends in the ocean can be sobering, the combination of cloud computing and massive data is enabling new tools to visualise, understand and potentially reverse these trends.

Brian Sullivan of Google’s Earth Outreach and Oceans section

The Global Ocean Commission, an independent panel launched in February 2013, said evidence showed the seas have been fished to dangerously low levels, with 90 percent of the world’s large fish stocks — such as tuna and swordfish — already gone. The commission said one of the challenges in tackling illegal fishing was the lack of jurisdiction on the high seas. While the high seas make up 64 percent of the ocean’s total surface area, they fall beyond national jurisdictions and suffer from a lack of oversight, the organisation said.

While many of the environmental trends in the ocean can be sobering, the combination of cloud computing and massive data is enabling new tools to visualise, understand and potentially reverse these trends.

World Parks Congress in Sydney

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