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| Subject: Albatrosses strapped with sensors help spy on 'illegal' fishing boats; Shoot the fuckers on sight Tue Feb 04, 2020 1:27 am | |
| Birds carrying radar sensors have been used to spy on fishing boats, revealing that a quarter of vessels in the Indian Ocean are operating illegally.
Globally, illegal fishing is estimated to cost £17.6 billion a year, but satellite monitoring can be costly, sometimes slow and can miss boats. An international team decided to give flight to a pioneering alternative: strapping sensors to 169 albatrosses and releasing them in the south of the Indian Ocean. The birds can travel vast distances and are attracted to fishing vessels. The researchers attached sensors that could pick up a boat’s use of radar from about 30 kilometres away, which can then be used to confirm whether the boat’s Automatic Identification System – used for avoiding collisions and allowing authorities to track it – is on.
Between December 2018 and June 2019, they detected a total of 353 fishing boats in the region. Of those operating in countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs), where vessels have to declare fishing, 25.8 per cent had their Automatic Identification Systems switched off. Such behaviour is often a sign of illegal fishing. In international waters, fishing isn’t illegal but should be declared. There, the birds revealed that 36.9 per cent of vessels had the system turned off.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2231442-albatrosses-strapped-with-sensors-help-spy-on-illegal-fishing-boats/
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