Tiny Team Uses Satellites to Bust Illegal Fishing Worldwide
▻http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150615-skytruth-pirate-fishing-illegal-big-data-ocean-conse
Gradually, the team learned to turn mapping technology toward one of the ocean’s biggest problems: illegal or “pirate” fishing, which a recent study found is responsible for 20 to 32 percent of wild-caught seafood imported into the U.S. Pirate fishers thwart government quotas, avoid fees, and pillage sanctuaries. (See how the White House plans to fight illegal fishing.)
To detect such rule-breaking, SkyTruth partnered with the Pew Charitable Trusts to conduct systematic monitoring in large swaths of the Pacific. That experience led to a new partnership between SkyTruth, Google, and the nonprofit Oceana to develop a platform to allow fisheries officials, governments, companies, and advocacy groups to better track fishing vessels. The result is a website called Global Fishing Watch, launched last November.