"Researchers using AI and satellite imagery find 75% of industrial fishing is not being publicly tracked, while wind turbines now outnumber oil platforms".
"Researchers have created the first global map of the industrial use of the ocean, using space technology and AI to reveal the emergence of a “new industrial revolution”.
A study led by Global Fishing Watch (GFW) and published in Nature found that 75% of the world’s industrial fishing vessels, mainly operating in Africa and south Asia, are “dark” or not publicly tracked. More than a quarter of the activity of transport and energy vessels is also missing from public tracking systems, it found.
While fishing decreased globally by 12% over the study period of 2017-2021 due to the Covid pandemic, the research showed that the number of offshore structures at sea grew rapidly, with wind turbines surpassing the number of oil structures in 2021. China’s offshore wind energy has increased ninefold since 2017, while the biggest offshore wind developers in Europe – the UK and Germany – saw an increase of 49% and 28% respectively.
The analysis of ocean industrialisation reveals hotspots of potential illegal activity, including industrial fishing vessels encroaching on artisanal fishing grounds or other countries’ waters. It shows “dark” fishing vessels inside marine protected areas, including, on average, more than 20 a week in the Great Barrier Reef and five a week in the Galápagos Islands, two of the most well-monitored and biologically important reserves in the world."
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