The Outlaws of the Ocean @TED #ted #shorts

One fifth of seafood is thought to be caught illegally

or is simply unreported.

If you can't see it, you can't manage it.

And I know from experience,

you can't monitor the whole ocean from the decks of ships.

Using GPS location data,

Global Fishing Watch built the first-ever live stream map

to monitor the industrial fishing fleet.

When we were working with our partners in Japan and South Korea,

they told us there was illegal fishing suspected in North Korean waters.

But when we first took a look on our map, we could see

very little fishing because those vessels were not sharing their GPS location data,

as they should.

We call them “dark vessels.”

And generally, dark vessels are up to no good.

So we had to turn to other sources of data.

We looked at satellite-based radar

and optical imagery,

and we lit that region up.

We revealed an armada of almost 1,000 vessels.

The techniques we used to illuminate what was happening in North Korea,

we can use anywhere

and everywhere to make the invisible visible.

We can end pirate fishing.

And we can transform ocean management

for the common good of all.