Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep. — Psalm 107:23-24
Out on the high seas, a scientist leans over the railing of a research vessel. She holds a long pole. When a shark swims near enough, the scientist reaches out and pokes its fin—where there are no nerves—with the pole. Boom! The shark is “tagged” with a satellite tracker. The device logs the animal’s movements. Tags allow researchers to see where sharks swim. But until now, they couldn’t track an even more elusive ocean hunter: humans.
A new study, “Tracking the Global Footprint of Fisheries,” made use of technology already onboard commercial fishing vessels. From the data collected, a global fishing map was created.
All large ships carry an automated identification system. As a safety measure, the signal beams the ship’s location to satellites every few seconds. The emergency beacons helped researchers answer this question: How much of the world’s oceans does the fishing industry impact?
From 2012 to 2016, the research team collected boat location signals. Scientists studied 22 billion safety signals. Computers translated the information into fishing patterns. The data revealed where boats were fishing, how they were moving, what they were likely fishing for, and how they caught fish. Monitors then checked the data against logbooks from some ships. The beacon data and the logs matched.
Here are just some of the study’s discoveries:
—Five countries—China, Spain, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea—account for 85% of all high seas fishing.
—China dominates global fishing. Of the 40 million hours that large ships fished in 2016, Chinese boats fished 17 million hours.
—Many vessels use longline fishing (a main line with hooks spaced at intervals along it)—which generally catches more of the top predators like tuna and sharks.
—Large-scale commercial fishing covers more than 55% of Earth’s oceans. Vessels travel more than 285 million miles a year—three times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
“The most mind-blowing thing is just how global an enterprise [fishing] is,” says study co-author Boris Worm, a marine biologist. Researchers believe the study’s findings could help better protect the oceans and keep fisheries alive.
