Non-profit organization SkyTruth, led by a geologist named John Amos, 52, has found a way to partner with Google and Oceana organization to create a website that will be able to track illegal fishing.
Illegal fishing is rampant, but no one really knows exactly where or how many of it is taking place in the oceans. Being vast, the task of patrolling illegal fishing is a hard. Soon however, the task may not be too hard since the small non-profit SkyTruth has figured out a way to help governments track seafood pirates using modern technology - powerful software, digital maps and public data, according to The Guardian.
Right now, SkyTruth has less than a dozen employees on board operating the non-profit from Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Despite its small staff size, SkyTruth was able to help the government of the Pacific island nation of Palau to track a Taiwanese ship filled with illegally caught tuna and shark fins.
While Amos believes "busting the bad guys is sexy," the 52-year-old reportedly wants to take the watchdog task to the next level.
By teaming with Google and international conservation and advocacy group Oceana, SkyTruth will soon be able to build a website called Global Fishing Watch. The page will allow not only the non-profit, but the public anywhere in the world to track illegal fishers and enable people to make sure that the fish that they eat and buy come from sustainable means. In addition, SkyTruth aims to provide data from the website to researchers.
A noted by The Guardian, the Global Fishing Watch project was announced a year ago, with launch expected in 2016. The project will "combine satellite imaging and data taken from an Automatic Identification System (AIS) that all ships use to report their locations to generate online, real-time picture of global fishing activities."
According to Amos, SkyWatch's broader goal with Global Fishing Watch is to "nurture a global movement of local watchdogs" that will generate tons of data for the governments and other organizations that are also useful and accessible by the public.
"Democratization (of data) is proceeding at a breakneck pace," Amos says.
SkyTruth is among the nonprofits and companies featured at the "Wired in the Wild: Can technology save the planet" conference in November 18 at Washington DC. The daylong event was reportedly organized by World Wildlife Fund to highlight ways where technology can be used for conservation.
The conference featured usage of drones for wildlife patrol and survey, attaching sensors to rhinos to effectively identify poachers, as well as the use of submersibles for marine biologists to gain access to the deep recesses of the ocean to study coral.
Illegal fishing, which includes unreported and unregulated ones, depletes food sources. It also creates significant economic losses ranging from an estimated $10 billion to $23.5 billion every year worldwide.