Our oceans support more than a billion people. For example, they provide us with food through fishing or through connections between ports. A whopping 80% of all traded goods are transported across the ocean. Without ours Marine highways
and the maritime wealth of resources, humanity probably could not exist in its current form.
But what do we humans actually do on the sea? A study by the non-profit organization (NGO) Global Fishing Watch has set itself the task of shedding more light on the matter – using satellite and artificial intelligence. More on that in a moment.
Tracking from space for greater clarity
In theory, every ship must have some kind of identification. The so-called ship identification system (AIS) is mandatory, but in practice many ships do not comply with it for a variety of reasons. In order to get a more accurate picture, a new approach was needed.
▶ The scientists’ idea: A view from space could reveal more.
▶ Millions of gigabytes of material: Researchers from Global Fishing Watch, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Duke University, UC Santa Barbara and SkyTruth analyzed an impressive 2 million gigabytes of satellite images from 2017 to 2021.
▶ A mammoth project: Using satellite images of 6 continents, they analyzed ships and offshore infrastructure in coastal waters. The goal was to identify where more than three quarters of industrial activity is concentrated.
They then combined the images from space and GPS data from ships and fed deep learning models (AIs). This enabled researchers to map our activities on the world’s oceans more accurately than ever before.
The results of the study shed light on a shadow industry
By combining space technology and cutting-edge machine learning, we have mapped undisclosed industrial activity at sea on an unprecedented scale.
That’s what Fernando Paolo, senior machine learning engineer at Global Fishing Watch and one of the study’s lead authors, says.
Here you can see one of the images that the researchers were able to sketch:
Worth knowing: Many fishing boats deliberately turn off their navigation lights in order to conceal any illegal fishing activities they may be carrying out or to avoid directing competitors to particularly lucrative fishing spots. These boats escape international surveillance, which greatly distorts the official statistics.
The publicly available data incorrectly suggests that Asia and Europe fish at similar levels within their borders. However, our mapping shows that Asia dominates – out of ten fishing vessels we found on the water, seven were in Asia and only one in Europe.
This is what one of the researchers and co-author Jennifer Raynor says in the Global Fishing Watch article.
During the course of the study, the researchers found that 72 to 76 percent of the world’s industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked. A large part of this fishing takes place in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa.
In addition, transport and energy ships probably sail 21 to 30% under the radar of public tracking systems.
One of the reasons for this: Another study assumes thisthat illegal fishing generates between $9 and $17 billion in gross revenue worldwide. However, the damage caused is significantly higher: up to $50 billion (almost 45 billion dollars). That’s why this shadow industry naturally doesn’t want to look at the (marine) maps.
So it’s no wonder that a lot of things go under the radar of the official recording systems. According to the Guardian, fishing for timber and mining is that third most lucrative crimes against natural resources
But there is also good news
▶ Another result of the study: Renewable energy production from offshore wind power is growing astonishingly quickly. While the facilities are limited to smaller maritime areas, they have surpassed the number of oil facilities built in 2021, according to the study.
In this image from the study you can see in which areas of the world wind power is particularly widespread:
Offshore energy development increased significantly during the study period. The number of oil production facilities also rose by 16 percent, but wind turbines recorded the greatest growth.
A positive finding from the study: The recorded growth in wind turbines gives hope that the shift to renewable energies will definitely be perceived as an opportunity – even if many players are probably more motivated by economic interests than out of love for the environment.
Which may surprise many: China is the leader in wind power growth. The country increased its wind turbines ninefold over the 5 years of the study.
What do you think about the importance of this study? What could be the lesson from this study for the maritime future? Should there be something like a global fisheries police force funded by all countries around the world? Would you have guessed that about wind turbines and China? Feel free to write us your thoughts and ideas in the comments.