How machine learning is helping map global fishing activity

Out of sight, out of mind – overfishing is one of the biggest environment issues facing us today, with over 85 percent of the world's fisheries in dire need of protection but then again what happens beyond the horizon in the middle of oceans is hardly monitored or known to the public. Google, in partnership with Oceana and SkyTruth, has launched a tracking platform called "Global Fishing Watch" to help increase awareness of fisheries and to monitor fishing activities across the world. Vessels in the ocean use the Automatic Identification System (AIS) to transmit their location for identifying themselves and for communicating with nearby ships, AIS base stations and satellites. At any given time, there are approximately 200,000 ships that broadcast their location using the AIS. Global Fishing Watch utilises machine learning to comb through these logs (over 22 million records per day) to classify and determine the type of ship (e.g., cargo, tug, sail, fishing) and the kind of fishing gear (longline, purse seine, trawl) they're using.