THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE
2020
Despite the global dominance of small vessels,
estimations of their numbers are likely to be
less accurate, as, unlike industrial vessels,
they are often not
subject to licensing and
registration requirements. Moreover, even
when registered, they may not be reported
in national statistics. The lack of information
and reporting is particularly acute for inland
water fleets, which are often entirely omitted
from national or local registries. Regarding the
reporting of inland vessels for Europe, although
the data trend appears to show an increase in
the
number of inland vessels, this only reflects
a change in reporting. Data reporting still does
not allow for accurate disaggregation between
marine and inland water fleets. However, work
In a two-year collaboration, FAO partnered with
Global Fishing Watch (GFW), Fundación AZTI – AZTI
Fundazioa and the Seychelles Fishing Authority to
conduct a study on the strengths and limitations of
fishing data based on the Automatic Identification
System (AIS). The collaboration resulted in the
Global
Atlas on AIS-based Fishing Activity
.
1
The atlas was the
fruit of in-depth analysis of GFW data from the AIS,
region by region, drawing on the knowledge of more
than 50 fisheries experts, and FAO fisheries data and
catch reconstructions, and including two detailed case
studies for the Bay of Biscay (Spain) and Seychelles
tuna fisheries.
At
its core, the study made use of the AIS-based
data that GFW had published that tracked the activity
of more than 60 000 fishing vessels. The vessels
included in AIS-data analysis were those that had
active fishing activity for at least 24 hours in the
reference year. Of the vessels tracked, slightly more
than 22 000 were directly identified through matching
AIS data on the vessels to registries,
and the remaining
vessels were identified by type through GFW
algorithms, which identify fishing vessels based on
their behaviour.
Utilization of the AIS is not consistent among the
global fishing fleet. About two-thirds of the world’s
fishing vessels of more than 24 m length overall (LOA)
were found to be Chinese, and most of these broadcast
an AIS signal at some point during 2017. The
next-largest national fleet of vessels of more than 24 m
LOA was found in Indonesia, but only a miniscule
proportion of this fleet is equipped with the AIS.
However, most European Union countries have high use
of the AIS on fishing vessels. The study noted that most
of the countries
with large fleets were, according to the
World Bank’s classification, upper-middle income or
higher-income States.
FAO fleet statistics, which are reported by FAO
Members, were used to compare the number and types
of vessels broadcasting AIS data with all fishing vessels
in the world. The reporting, which varies in time and in
coverage, was used as a baseline for comparison. In
some cases, the AIS-based
data provided novel sources
of data, and this collaborative work has led to data
improvements for the FAO dataset and helped refine
estimates of the total number of vessels of more than
24 m LOA.
Through this research, it was found that in some
regions, such as the North Atlantic, AIS data provide
an almost complete picture of the fishing activity for
vessels of more than 15 m LOA. However, in regions
such
as the Indian Ocean, the AIS data could only
provide a partial picture of the total fishing vessels
and their activity. This is partly due to the large
proportion of artisanal or small vessels in many central
and southern regions, but also because of the lower
use of the AIS by larger vessels. In Southeast Asia,
very few fishing vessels have AIS devices installed,
and AIS reception quality is poor. However, the
relevance of AIS-based data increases every year as
the number of vessels broadcasting
AIS data increases
each year. For example, between 2014 and 2017,
the number of vessels broadcasting increased by
10–30 percent each year.
BOX 3
AIS-BASED FISHING DATA
1
Taconet, M., Kroodsma, D. & Fernandes, J.A. 2019.
Global Atlas of AIS-based fishing activity – challenges and opportunities
. Rome, FAO. 392 pp.
(also available at www.fao.org/3/ca7012en/ca7012en.pdf).
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