Page 143 - Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals

United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals

Thus, the Global Fishing Watch platform covers an area which had been hitherto untapped, by providing
regulators with an effective monitoring tool that can help curb overfishing, rebuild fish stocks and protect
aquatic life.

2.2 Possible outcomes of wide-scale utilization

The Global Fishing Watch platform is programmed to use public broadcast data from the Automatic
Identification System (AIS) collected by satellite and terrestrial receivers. This enables the tracking of the
actions of commercial vessels as it occurs. Global Fishing Watch uses the information collected to monitor
vessel movement and classify activities as “fishing” or “non-fishing”.
Currently, the Global Fishing Watch is able to depict the fishing activity of approximately 35 000 commercial
fishing vessels functioning throughout the world’s oceans. This platform is the first of its kind to bring such
information into the public limelight, which in turn will allow regulators to hold the fishing industry
accountable for any overfishing lapses. This platform is also expected to help the fishing industry understand
the impact of their activities and conduct sustainable fishing operations, and also to assist relevant
enforcement agencies to phase out illegal fishing in due course.

3 Conclusions

The Global Fishing Watch platform is expected to reform commercial fishing norms, while helping to identify
irregularities, track dubious fishing activities and reduce seafood fraud.
Countries like Indonesia have already committed to registering their fishing vessels with trackers to make
them visible through the platform. This is expected to improve transparency of the Indonesian fishing
industry and will allow customers to ascertain whether their seafood had been legally harvested.

Global Fishing Watch is touted to be a game-changer not only for the fishing industry but also for
governments, international agencies and other stakeholders, who are responsible for setting the guidelines
and regulatory frameworks for fisheries. This technology is also expected to assist the international
communities in the achievement of SDG 14 by providing a transparent and innovative tool for effective
surveillance on fishing activities and thereby protecting precious life below water.

A References

Development and Globalization: Facts and Figures 2016, Goal 14. UNCTAD
Global Fishing Watch Launch.
http://oceana.org/press-center/press-releases/oceana-skytruth-and-google-launch-global-fishing-watch-
first-free-online (accessed 14 February 2017)

Global Fishing Watch Platform.
http://globalfishingwatch.org/the-project (accessed 14 February 2017)
Ericsson, (2016), ICTs and SDGs, The Earth Institute Columbia University.
(2015) Sustainable Use of Our Oceans –Making Ideas Work. World Ocean Review.
C. Heinze, S. Meyer, N. Goris, L. Anderson, R. Steinfeldt, N. Chang, C. Le Quéré, D. C. E. Bakker, (2015), The
ocean carbon sink – impacts, vulnerabilities and challenges, Earth System Dynamics.

U4SSC series 137