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Track and trace: transparent and digitized fishing data is crucial to ocean resilience
Jun 4, 2020
Recovery from COVID-19 will require greater transparency in fishing activity. Pandemic has meant surveillance has been suspended Hi-tech innovations offer potential solutions.
As the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, its myriad negative consequences are slowly becoming clearer. While many of the impacts have been unmistakable, with entire countries locked down, some are playing out far away from our homes and shorelines, in the open ocean.
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The current fisheries monitoring system is already under stress, allowing for up to one in five wild-caught fish to be illegally caught each year. Any relaxation in the monitoring and surveillance of commercial fisheries could allow for more illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing which, in the Pacific alone, is estimated to already cost Pacific nations $4.3 billion to $8.3 billion per year in loss of gross revenues.
Ocean-capture fisheries remain subject to levels of lawlessness that are largely unthinkable when it comes to land-based food production. Fishery observers, who are placed onboard vessels to monitor fishing activity, help mitigate this by collecting independent data on catch, fishing effort, and compliance with conservation management measures. Their work is difficult and the conditions dangerous - the risks extend to death, as a recent report shows. But the information they provide is integral to responsible ocean management, making fishery observers one of the most vital roles in the fishing industry.
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