World

The next steps

Watching boats from outer space

August 16, 2015
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A new system is being developed that will help international authorities monitor illegal fishing on the high seas. “Catapult” is part of Project Eyes on the Seas, a joint effort between Pew Charitable Trust and Satellite Applications Catapult, to develop technology to help monitor fishing activity. The system will allow satellite tracking of vessels which can be detected through their automatic identification system (AIS)—which all ships over a certain size are obliged to carry.

“The big picture here is the capability to do large data analytics and to bring together all the sources that exist to get a full picture of what is happening out there on the ocean,” says Brad Soule, senior fisheries analyst at Catapult.

AIS was intended as a collision avoidance system and its use is required by the International Maritime Organisation. The signal emitted by the system from every vessel that carries it gives an identification tag, and details about direction and speed. Fishing vessels have traditionally been exempt from carrying AIS systems, as in the past a fishing boat’s position was regarded by owners as proprietary information.

But the European Union now insists on their use for fishing fleets and from next year, the US will also make their use mandatory. The signals emitted from these devices can be monitored by satellite and it is this that forms the basis of the Catapult system, which will allow an unprecedented breadth of oversight of precisely who is on the high seas and what they are doing there.

“Our goal will be to relay that to the people who can put that information to the best use,” says Soule.

“Very soon we will be signing a memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom Space Agency, to implement its Catapult program,” says Heraldo Muñoz, the Chilean Foreign Minister. “The system will be implemented by the Chilean Navy.”

Chile’s coastline, nearly 6,500km long, presents a great challenge for authorities determined to stop illegal fishing. The government recently introduced regulations under which smaller vessels must carry a monitoring system so that, like the larger trawlers, they will be remotely identifiable. “This is a regulation that few countries in the world have put in place,” says Muñoz. “Through it, we are sending a very strong signal, indicating that Chile is combating [illegal] fishing on a national and international level.”

What happens when a vessel is spotted doing something illegal? Soule, a former US coastguard and former criminal intelligence officer at Interpol, is clear that the aim is compliance on the part of fishing fleets—“that doesn’t mean,” he says, “that someone needs to be rappelling out of a helicopter, which is really what everyone thinks about. We don’t have the resources to do that. And honestly it doesn’t need to work that way.”

Much more effective, and realistic, is to confront fishing companies and owners with evidence that their vessels have been acting illegally. This can be done through close cooperation with the world’s law enforcement systems and it is through them that suspicious behaviour can be addressed. More powers will be obtained under the Port State Measures Agreement, an international accord that will allow countries to deny port services to illegal fishing vessels. This means that a fishing boat may be prevented from unloading its catch, until eventually that vessel will be forced to return to their home port where it will be forced to pay a fine. The openness of the port services denial will pressurise large companies into compliance, as they will face acute embarrassment at being associated with illegal behaviour. Fines of this sort have already been levied and can run into the millions of dollars.

Matt Rand, Director of Global Ocean Legacy for the Pew Charitable Trust, makes clear what is at stake. “Twenty-three billion dollars worth of seafood is stolen every year,” from the sea. “Up to one in five fish is taken from the sea illegally and global fisheries are already in a severe state of decline.” According to Rand, from the 1950s to the early 2000s, there was a loss of almost 90 per cent of some of the larger predatory fish from the world’s oceans, including sharks, tuna, swordfish, marlins and cod. The removal of this proportion of a top predator can lead to a complete collapse of the ocean’s ecosystem. Top predators restrict the numbers of prey species, and their absence can cause imbalances in the sea’s ecosystem which potentially result in what scientists term a “phase shift.” In this scenario, the ecosystem changes to a new equilibrium, which is very hard to reverse.

Marine Protected Areas will help to stop this, by limiting the access of fishing fleets to waters at risk of overfishing. Chile’s Foreign Minister notes that “we have several of them” already and that “the focus of our efforts will now be centred in our oceanic islands.” These include some of the most remote Pacific islands of all, including Easter Island. The Chilean government and others are now intensely focused on developing the international legal framework capable of confronting the huge ecological challenges posed by the depletion of the seas.

“Last year in Washington I offered Chile to host the second Our Ocean Conference, giving continuity to the initiative started by US Secretary of State John Kerry,” says Heraldo Muñoz. The conference will take place in October and its main aim will be to encourage action including pollution, illegal fishing and acidification. The Chilean government also hopes that new Marine Protected Areas will be announced.

“We expect to have relevant announcements and commitments not only from governments,” says Muñoz, “but also from international agencies, philanthropists, private sector and civil society as well.”