So I was reading this interesting article on mapping illegal fishing from space where there is a huge amount of progress with satellite imagery now that we can use for various reasons on Earth. I think it’s an interesting concept and I think it also poses some serious political and legal issues in and around New Zealand with all of the oceanic fishing that happens in the region of the world. I think it would definitely be a way to catch people performing illegal fishing, okay we can see them doing it but how do we possibly enforce anything? They’ve done similar projects with satellite imagery for watching ceasefire borders with South Sudan and Sudan etc. but how well did that actually help the situation?
The article states “A prototype of the system, called Global Fishing Watch, was unveiled today at the IUCN World Parks Congress in Sydney. The tool makes use of Google’s mapping software and servers to display the tracks followed in 2012 and 2013 by some 25,000 ships that were either registered as large commercial fishers or were moving in ways that strongly suggest fishing activity.” which is quite interesting that they will be actually tracking fishing routes. I think this is more effective than chasing specific commercial boats individually but to track pathways to catch illegal fishing. What do you all think about this project and it’s implications for New Zealand and the surrounding oceans?
practicalpuppy 