Satellite mapping reveals extensive industrial activity at sea.

ABSTRACT: The world's population increasingly relies on the ocean for food, energy production and global trade^1-3, yet human activities at sea are not well quantified^4,5. We combine satellite imagery, vessel GPS data and deep-learning models to map industrial vessel activities and offshore energy infrastructure across the world's coastal waters from 2017 to 2021. We find that 72-76% of the world's industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked, with much of that fishing taking place around South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. We also find that 21-30% of transport and energy vessel activity is missing from public tracking systems. Globally, fishing decreased by 12 ± 1% at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and had not recovered to pre-pandemic levels by 2021. By c

SUBMITTER: Paolo FS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10764273 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature