Google is joining the fight against illegal fishing, providing their vast financial and technological resources as tools to assist conservation groups detect illegal fishing activity, reports CNET.
Google and its partners in Sydney, Australia launched a new initiative called "Global Fishing Watch." It will use Google's cloud-computing software and servers to compile satellite data for real-time tracking of fishing activity all over the world.
"Global Fishing Watch is the product of a technology partnership between SkyTruth, Oceana, and Google that is designed to show all of the trackable fishing activity in the ocean," according to an announcement on their website.
"This interactive web tool... is being built to enable anyone to visualize the global fishing fleet in space and time. Global Fishing Watch will reveal the intensity of fishing effort around the world, one of the stressors contributing to the precipitous decline of our fisheries."
John Amos, president of SkyTruth, said in a statement, "So much of what happens out on the high seas is invisible, and that has been a huge barrier to understanding and showing the world what's at stake for the ocean."
The interactive tool is now at the prototype stage. It will be utilizing data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) network, says a Wired article, to detect a fishing vessel's location and track its movement through GPS. Only fishing vessels will be tracked and plotted, however, so non-fishing vessels are ignored and removed from the data feeds.
The satellite data to be used for locating the vessels will be provided through SpaceQuest's AIS, and will be processed to allow visualization on a map via Google's own mapping system. An algorithm provided by Analyze Corp., a non-profit company, will be used in processing the data to specifically identify fishing vessels, according to IT News.
Using the AIS means the Global Fishing Watch will not be able to track smaller vessels, since those boats are usually not required to install AIS trackers.