Organization: Global Fishing Watch Inc
Mission: Global Fishing Watch advances ocean governance through increased transparency of human activity at sea. By creating and publicly sharing map visualizations, data and analysis tools, we enable scientific research and drive a transformation in how we manage our oceans.
Activities: Global Fishing Watch, Inc.2019 Accomplishments for Schedule O of Form 990 Global Fishing Watch, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) corporation founded in 2017. During the 2019 year reported in this Form 990, Global Fishing Watch made positive strides in its mission of advancing ocean sustainability through increasing transparency. Highlights included the following:Organizational: We recruited employees and consultants, expanding to a 35 person team in 12 countries. As of 12/31/19, we had 17 active grant agreements for a combined total value of more than $13.5 million over grant terms that range from a few months to 4 years.Platform Development:We continued to improve the presentation and user experience of the Global Fishing Watch map and online services, and established an online training resource to support Global Fishing Watch map and data users. Research and Innovation:In 2019, Global Fishing Watch and our research partners published seven research papers in leading international journals (for a total of 27 papers published to-date):- Fish and Fisheries: Catching industrial fishing incursions into inshore waters of Africa from space- Nature Sustainability: Property rights and the protection of global marine resources- Frontiers in Marine Science: Growth Limitation of Marine Fish by Low Iron Availability in the Open Ocean- Nature: Global spatial risk assessment of sharks under the footprint of fisheries- PLOS ONE: Seasonal variability in global industrial fishing effort- Remote Sensing: Cross-Matching VIIRS Boat Detections with Vessel Monitoring System Tracks in Indonesia- Science Advances: Predicted hotspots of overlap between highly migratory fishes and industrial fishing fleets in the northeast PacificAdditionally, in November 2019, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO) launched a new Global Atlas of AIS-based fishing activity produced in partnership with AZTI and the Seychelles Fishing Authority. A first of its kind, it analyses the opportunities and challenges in using Automatic Identification Systems (AIS), designed for navigation and anti-collision, to monitor fishing activity around the globe. This review and verification of our AIS-based fishing tracking approach not only enables fisheries managers and policymakers to fully understand its strengths and limitations, it also brings top-level recognition of the value of transparency. Data and Analysis:We launched a Data and Analysis Cell and initiated our first analysis partnerships, with the purpose of producing analysis that will support countries in adopting transparency. We have provided fishing assessments in support of work in three areas: supporting our Transparency team to engage governments, working with countries who have agreed to share their data, and engaging countries through regional fisheries management organizations and our other partners.In collaboration with Indonesia, Panama, and INTERPOL, we supported the apprehension of a rogue vessel, the MV NIKA, wanted in several jurisdictions. We also supported multilateral patrols through the authority of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission aboard the United States Coast Guard (USCG) cutter, Mello, that resulted in a 344% increase in boardings and uncovered an 867% increase in violations compared to their 2018 operation. Transparency Program: Improvement in sustainable fisheries and our oceans is dependent on increasing the participation in, and adoption of, transparency, and Global Fishing Watch supports numerous areas vital to this. The Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) program underpins the need for open vessel tracking and our ambition to track vessels responsible for 75% of global catch within 10 years (approximately 300,000 vessels). By early 2019, we doubled our AIS vessel tracking data and grew to approximately 65,000 commercial fishing vessels, through a partnership with AIS company Spire to complement our existing provider, Orbcomm. We estimate this currently accounts for somewhere between 10 - 30% of global commercial catch. The VMS program will be enhanced by ingesting new tracking data from small-scale vessels.Panama published their vessel data via our platform in October 2019, and Mexico shared their historical data. Global Fishing Watch also secured a commitment from Chile to publish their data on the map, and have draft Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) under consideration with Costa Rica, Ecuador and Namibia. We conducted trainings or workshops about our Transparency Program and open data in Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, The Gambia, Taiwan, and Vietnam.Communications and Outreach: Global Fishing Watch maintained a high public profile in 2019. Key metrics included:Social media:- Twitter followers: 60% increase- Facebook followers: 13% increaseWebsite traffic:- Website 2018: 371,626 sessions, 18% increase from previous yearInternational media coverage: - More than 1,500 international media articles.
NTEE category: International, Foreign Affairs & National Security
Secondary category: Environment