Global Fishing Watch is an independent, international non-profit organisation.

They were originally set up through a collaboration between three partners: Oceana, an international ocean conservation organisation; SkyTruth, experts in using satellite technology to protect the environment; and Google, who provide the tools for processing big data.

Their vision

Healthy, productive and resilient oceans where transparent and effective governance of marine resources supports biodiversity and sustainable development.

Their mission

They’re committed to advancing ocean sustainability and stewardship through increasing transparency. They do this by offering, for free, data and near real-time tracking of global commercial fishing activity, supporting new science and research, and boosting the global dialogue on ocean transparency. 

Within the next 10 years, they aim to track all large-scale fishing – some 300,000 boats responsible for about three-quarters of the global marine catch – and increase their ability to track small-scale fishing vessels.

What they do

Research and innovation

By making their data and visualisation tools freely available, they’re enabling scientific understanding and insights that will lead to change on the water.

They’re collaborating with internationally-recognised research institutions to further understanding of the complex challenges facing their ocean. This has generated new insights on, for example, high-seas fishing, shark finning by illegal fishers, the impact of Indonesia’s efforts to combat illegal fishing, and close encounters at sea where one vessel may be transferring its catch to another.

Policy and markets

Their data can inform economic and policy decisions, and they’re pursuing partnerships with government and industry to improve transparency, data sharing and fisheries management. Data from other initiatives like industry-traceability programmes can also help them to tip the balance toward transparency.

Advocacy and education

They’re growing a community of people committed to sustainable fisheries and better management in their oceans. They’re bringing together governments, businesses, NGOs, media and academia to promote transparency, improve understanding and foster collaboration – for example in building demand for verifiable, sustainably-sourced seafood, identifying illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing hotspots, and establishing and managing marine protected areas.

Their transparency initiative

In 2017, Indonesia became the first nation to make its proprietary vessel monitoring system (VMS) tracking data available via Global Fishing Watch, instantly putting 5,000 smaller commercial fishing vessels that don’t use AIS on their map. Peru stepped up with a public commitment in June 2017 to share its VMS data, and Costa Rica followed suit in May 2018.