The group leverages positioning data from Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders that are required on large vessels, primarily to prevent collisions.<\/p>\n
RELATED: California Academy of Sciences team finds ocean warming reaching deeper than expected<\/a><\/p>\n But taking that data and adding in a powerful dose of Artificial Intelligence, the group’s chief scientist David Kroodsma claims they are able to paint a global picture of fishing fleets.<\/p>\n “What we do is we take all the GPS positions of all the boats in the world. You’re talking about a database of 100 or well over 100 bazillion, 100 billion, GPS positions. And we use machine learning to determine what types of boat they are, what they’re doing, if they’re fishing boats, when they’re fishing,” Kroodsma explains.<\/p>\n And if a ship flips off the transponder for any reason, a maneuver known as going dark, Kroodsma and his fellow trackers double down.<\/p>\n “Millions of gigabytes of satellite imagery to and apply AI to that to detect vessels and then determine which vessels are broadcasting which ones or not, to come up with that larger picture of where activity on the ocean is happening,” he adds.<\/p>\n RELATED: CA coast could soon be safer for whales with expansion of vessel speed reduction program<\/a><\/p>\n The result is a global view of the world’s oceans that’s becoming incredibly detailed with each advance in technology.<\/p>\n Global Fishing Watch makes the data publicly available on their website and says their primary goal is to help better monitor the world’s oceans and prevent environmental threats like overfishing.<\/p>\n At the same time, these powerful technologies are also expanding the group’s role and becoming valuable in a new and different way.<\/p>\n “We wondered if we could use it to understand what’s happening to the ecosystem as the climate changes,” explains Heather Welch, a marine science researcher at U.C. Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n Instead of tracking fishing fleets, Welch and her colleagues are interested in tracking the fish themselves. Tuna to be exact.<\/p>\n RELATED: Experts examine how climate change will create more king tides in Bay Area<\/a><\/p>\n To do that, they’re leveraging data from a different tracking system known as VMS, for vessel monitoring system. It’s how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration helps monitor fishing in U.S. waters.<\/p>\n “Fisheries data, ecological data is time consuming to collect. It’s often people going out in planes, on vessels, on scuba. That takes a lot of time and money. So we’re looking for this sort of data stream that’s available already and available very quickly to provide us those inferences,” says Welch.<\/p>\n In a newly published study, Welch’s team treated the fishing fleet data like a floating sensor system, comparing location data from the fleets to the migration of albacore Tuna during marine heat waves, sometimes known as ocean Blobs.<\/p>\n They say the technique was six times as successful at predicting population shifts compared to traditional research techniques, like measuring ocean temperatures.<\/p>\n They believe the data could help provide an early warning, for disruptions in fishing and the broader marine environment.<\/p>\n
![\"Now](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770671872_43_11518842_247-NOWSTREAMING_1280x720.png\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n