Global Fishing Watch, a collaborative project initiated by Google, SkyTruth, and Oceana in 2015, has secured a substantial $60 million in funding from The Audacious Project, housed at Ted. The project aims to revolutionize the fight against Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, a significant threat to marine populations and ocean health.
The funding injection comes at a critical time, with nearly 90 percent of global marine fish stocks either fully exploited or overfished. IUU fishing exacerbates this crisis, annually depleting the ocean of approximately 26 million metric tons of sea life, according to the United Nations.
Global Fishing Watch, renowned for its creation of the first industrial fishing vessel map, plans to utilize the funding to develop a groundbreaking map using technology to track over one million vessels on the ocean. The project will integrate GPS data, satellite imagery, and artificial intelligence to bring transparency to the traditionally opaque fishing industry. Unlike previous attempts, this initiative aims to publicly display the activities of not only industrial fishing vessels but also the myriad small-scale fishing boats and cargo ships navigating the world’s oceans.
In a recent Ted Talk, Tony Long, CEO of Global Fishing Watch, emphasized the urgent need for increased awareness of human activity across the vast expanse of the planet’s surface. Long stated, “Shockingly, little is known about human activity taking place across more than two-thirds of our planet’s surface. This must change if we’re to restore our ocean’s health.”
The innovative approach of combining advanced technologies to make the invisible visible aligns with the organization’s commitment to transforming how ocean management is conducted. Paolo Domondon, the Chief Program Officer, highlighted the significance of gathering comprehensive ocean information, stating, “To protect the ocean, we need to see and understand everything that happens at sea. And we need to empower institutions and people to act on that knowledge.”
This financial support from The Audacious Project represents a pivotal step toward addressing the pressing challenges posed by IUU fishing, marking a turning point in the quest to safeguard marine ecosystems and the future health of the ocean.
