This is one of the rare cases where tracking precedes regulation. A few dozen ships, prospecting international waters most people couldn't find on a map. Watching where they go now — before commercial extraction starts — gives the ISA treaty debate something concrete to work with.

Ghana calling for real-time High Seas MPA monitoring using GFW — and positioning as a regional maritime domain awareness hub. This is exactly right. The BBNJ treaty is only as good as the tools and capacity countries have to enforce it.

The map is the gateway drug. People come for the pretty visualization, then realize they can actually see which vessels are fishing in their country's waters. That's when it gets interesting — and when governments start calling us.

We've been thinking about packaging our ocean monitoring tools as a managed service for countries and MPAs — platform, training, recurring analysis. Working name: "Marine Manager Pro." From Paper Parks to Lasting Protection. Is that something people actually need? And who would pay for it?

The hard part starts now. Countries that committed to protecting the high seas need actual tools to do it — vessel tracking, activity monitoring, reporting that works at scale. That's what we've been building. Curious to see who steps up first.

We built GFW to track fishing vessels. Turns out the same tools work just as well on deep-sea mining research ships — and the data raises some questions about how much time those vessels actually spend where they say they are.

A vessel that turns off its AIS to avoid detection is usually still running its lights. VIIRS picks those up. We've been working toward this kind of sensor fusion for a while — it gets a lot harder to simply disappear.

New report commissioned by PLOS finds GDP would be ~2% lower under closed research systems. The key finding: open science isn't just transparency — it's an economic multiplier when you build infrastructure that enables reuse at scale.

This was a really fun conversation with Eva van Heukelom. We talked about how vessel tracking went from being a niche data project to something that's reshaping how governments manage their oceans. If you want the short version: transparency works, but only when governments actually use the data.

Great experience meeting up with Grace Ekpu and the BBC Tech Now team in London for this. Cian Luck did a fantastic live demo of the map. Segment starts at 14:20.

One patrol vessel in the Chagos MPA was 9× better at catching illegal fishing boats than the other. Neither one deterred illegal fishing. I just came across this excellent new paper in ICES Journal of Marine Science with a compelling finding about how deterrence actually works.

The deep ocean is Earth’s last frontier — vast, unmapped, and home to species we haven’t yet discovered. Our latest In Conversation explores why transparency matters as deep-sea exploration expands, and how the updated Deep-Sea Mining Watch sheds light on activity offshore. 👉 https://bit.ly/44demEe

Friends, the Society for Conservation Biology - Marine Program is looking for a Science Officer. As the most recent science officer, I am happy to chat with you about the role if you're considering running!

Can AI be more than just a one-way ticket towards a dystopian future? At Global Fishing Watch, we’re proving it can be a force for good. 🌊 👉 The question isn’t whether AI will shape the future. It’s whether we’ll use it to protect our planet. 🌍 #UNGA80 #ClimateWeekNYC #AIforGood buff.ly/KXXLhdb

Congratulations to my good friend @johnamos.bsky.social on being named to the 2025 Forbes Sustainability Leaders list www.forbes.com/sites/elisab...

Brazil is using our Marine Manager platform to help oversee its coastline — turning complex ocean data into clear, actionable insights that can inform policy, guide energy decisions and protect marine areas. Read more 👉 globalfishingwatch.org/article/braz... #OpenData #OceanTransparency #Brazil

#NewPaper in @aaas.org#NewPaperfinds that domestic fishing vessels account for the majority of port visits around the world. Comprehensive inspections at port for both foreign and domestic fishing fleets are a key deterrent for #illegalfishing. https://stanford.io/45LXlB2

🔍 Next up for our Ask Global Fishing Watch series: Optical satellite imagery Geospatial data scientist Zihan Wei explains how we use Sentinel-2 for broad offshore coverage and Planet imagery for near-shore activity, including small-scale fishing often missed. 🌊 👉 https://bit.ly/4mL9Q79

Vietnam is forging its own EV path. 🚗⚡In just 2 years, it leapt from 3% to over 50% EV share. Homegrown VinFast—once laughed off—is now #1, #2, and #3. Backed by tax breaks, 150k chargers, and national pride, this isn’t catch-up. It’s a regional S-curve explosion—and there’s plenty more to come. #EV

Nice piece in Stanford Social Innovation Review by discussing the work that Global Forest Watch (the "other GFW") and Global Fishing Watch are doing to find ways for industry to more directly support our open data work that helps industry to meet their ESG commitments ssir.org/articles/ent...

Why do some say marine protected areas are just “paper parks”? And are industrial fishers actually staying out of these no-fishing zones? New in @science.org: We used AI + satellite radar to find out. doi.org/10.1126/scie... #ScienceResearch #OceanConservation #OceanTransparency #30x30 #Fisheries

Batteries are now so cheap that solar power no longer sleeps. ☀️🔋 2024 marked the inflection point: storage doubled, solar soared, and fossil electricity flatlined. This isn't just a tech milestone—it's a civilisational shift. From fossil dusk to solar dawn. The sun can now power the night! #SolarEra

How do you protect one of the ocean’s most biodiverse corridors? 🌊 Fisheries analyst Joe Fader shares how @globalfishingwatch.org is helping CMAR countries boost enforcement through data and collaboration. 🔗 Read more: globalfishingwatch.org/article/stre... #CMAR #OceanTransparency #MPAs

We are #NowHiring a Video Producer 🎬 The role will cover all of EJF’s campaigns to gather the evidence and visual materials that underpin and support our campaigns and advocacy work. Find out more and apply here: ejfoundation.org/jobs/video-p...

🚨 Final call: applications for Global Fishing Watch’s Open Ocean Research Grants close June 17 (end of day, anywhere in the world). Up to $20,000 for research into ocean transparency + governance. 🌐 Open globally — see priority geographies: 🔗 bit.ly/open-ocean-r...

Today at #UNOC3 , Global Fishing Watch partner @donabertarelli.bsky.social delivered a powerful call to rethink our relationship with the ocean, from one of extraction to one of reciprocity and regeneration. We thank her for the ongoing support in our mission to unveil human activities at sea.

@skytruth.org any chance we can see other trends like this based on long time series analysis of SAR-detected oil slicks?

We spent a couple of hours watching a pair of beaver in a pond on the grounds of the Himalayan Institute in north eastern PA, apparently involved in a grueling grudge match with the grounds keepers over the appropriate height for the dam that blocks the outlet to their pond.

🚢 75% of industrial fishing vessels aren’t publicly tracked. In this @pbs.org film, @globalfishwatchceo.bsky.social joins voices from Brazil and @bloombergdotorg.bsky.social on how transparency can reshape ocean governance. 🎥 Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPU3... #OceanTransparency

The unseen link between trawling and fish farming: New paper finds roughly 40% of fish feed inputs reported as ‘byproduct’ actually come from wild-captured seafloor-dwelling species. 🌎🦑🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

GFW needs your help! We have too much data and not enough researchers to investigate all the possibilities. So today we're piloting a new research grant program to encourage researchers to do novel things with our data. Find out more here buff.ly/MDL4xLE #OceanScience #Fisheries #ResearchFunding

Hooray! We now have an official company BlueSky account for Global Fishing Watch! #globalfishingwatch

China Launches First of 2,800 Satellites For AI Space Computing Constellation https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/2326249/china-launches-first-of-2800-satellites-for-ai-space-computing-constellation?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

#ICYMI Open Ownership is hiring a short-term, part-time technical and legal consultant to provide country-specific legal expertise on the laws relevant to #BeneficialOwnership #transparency. Deadline: 12 May 2025 More: www.openownership.org/en/about/job... #NGOJobs #NonProfitJobs @unjobs.org

An estimated 75% of industrial fishing vessels do not appear in public monitoring systems. They are ghosts drifting in the vast data void of the ocean. #GlobalFishingWatch #OceanTransparency #IUUfishing #SustainableFisheries #OurOcean #OpenData #BlueEconomy youtu.be/YPU3CEz-mHw?...

Nice piece by Ian Urbina of Outlaw Ocean on the challenges posed by proposed seabed mining for minerals needed for clean energy transition. Nothing is simple it seems... buff.ly/suym5nB

The morels are back! Yum! Thanks to our lackadaisical gardening practices, we get these yummy treats coming up every other year in our front garden. I think maybe they like the roots of our redbud tree. #mushrooms

New paper on ocean noise contributors in southern resident killer whale habitat in British Columbia and Washington State. Using our AIS data plus SAR detects to estimate the population of un-tracked vessels. Ro-ro ferries have the largest impact. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Knowing who truly owns fishing operations helps support fisheries governance and sustainability. #BeneficialOwnership #transparency is part of the solution. Read more in Open Ownership and @unodc.bsky.social's new brief: ▶️ bit.ly/oo-unodc-fisheries #UnitedAgainstCorruption #fisheries

@skollworldforum.bsky.social searching for a positive way forward following the collapse of Foreign Aid in the US. #skollwf @skollworldforum.bsky.social

Global Fishing Watch joined forces with UC Santa Barbara’s Environmental Markets Lab (emLab) and @climatetrace.org to conduct a first-ever study to map and estimate the emissions of all large industrial vessels operating at sea, accounting for 3% of global fossil fuel emissions. buff.ly/M2E2tAW

Just got a preview of Deep Sea Mining Watch, a project we are doing with Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at UCSB. Using our map tools to look at the activity of minerals exploration vessels instead of fishing vessels. You can overlay the planned mining lease blocks with the historic fishing.

🌍 Spotlighted by @nytimes.com, TNC's Global Renewables Watch provides unmatched insights into the renewable energy shift. It showcases current solar and wind capacities globally and highlights growth opportunities in every nation.

Does anyone know how to convert Fishing Plotter Files to GPX or some other standard geospatial data format? I want to pull some data on undersea cables from here: kis-orca.org/downloads/. I am looking at our bottom trawling model to see where predicted bottom trawling intersects the cables

I am seeing this more and more - the problem of conflicting industrial activites in the ocean. This paper looks a the UK as a case study on the friction between offshore wind development and existing fishing activity.

*Please repost* @sjgreenwood.bsky.social and I just launched a new personalized feed (*please pin*) that we hope will become a "must use" for #academicsky. The feed shows posts about papers filtered by *your* follower network. It's become my default Bluesky experience bsky.app/profile/pape...

Talking to a new startup based on Norway that is trying to bootstrap a maritime community based surveillance network. They are crowdsourcing the navigation radar data from participating vessels. I would LOVE to be able to add a data source like this to our GFW map! www.kahu.earth/about-us

New Open Data Release! Version 3 of our normalized global fishing effort dataset is available for download. Now spanning 12 years 2012-2024! The release adds 4 more years, nearly 370 million hours of fishing activity, and 141,000 new vessels. globalfishingwatch.org/platform-upd...

Join us for the next webinar in our Open 2.0 series where we'll explore how #OpenScience can help solve challenges for Big Team Science Initiatives. 📅 March 28, 9 AM EST 📝 Register: plos.io/3DBYe53 @einsteinberlin.bsky.social, @berlinualliance.bsky.social, BIH QUEST Center for Responsible Research

An analysis from @bjornbergman.bsky.social of #SkyTruth and #GlobalFishWatch reveals a Liberian-flagged tanker falsified and disabled #AIS tracking to hide recent entries into Russian ports. We examine the trail of pollution and unanswered questions left in its wake.