Current methods for monitoring fishing cannot pick up the majority of IUU activity. This is primarily due to the sheer number of vessels requiring monitoring and the great distances over which they are spread.
Digital tracking as legally required for commercial fishing vessels through Mobile Tranceiver Units (MTUs) has greatly improved tracking ability but the sheer volume of data from this and other data sources such as fishing license information, vessel catch history logbooks, IUU history of a vessel, inspection reports from Port State Authorities, and satellite imagery data among many others, produces data overload.
A VMS is the current best solution to handling this digital overload as it provides a platform for the presentation of the different data sources.
TRACKIUU intends to take the logical next step of using machine learning algorithms to identify at risk vessels in real time by monitoring and combining the multiple data streams for telltale signs of IUU activity. It will be designed and marketed as an add on, taking the VMS data streams from the customers VMS and feeding the analysis back to the VMS user interface through a specific well known method (API-Application Programming Interface).
TRACKIUU will provide benefits to Regional Fisheries Management Organisations and Relevant National and International Fisheries Authorities in allowing timely and precise allocation of physical inspection resources through patrol boats, aeroplanes and port inspections to increase detection and enforcement measures against IUU and decrease its prevalence.
The main economic beneficiary of such actions will be fishing economies, that are tending to a science based approach to catch quotas to allow the highest sustainable yield from wild ecosystems. Inherent environmental benefits are the sustainable use of marine ecosystems and increased protection of marine parks and areas where fishing is prohibited.
