REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti on Friday met US Secretary of State John Kerry at a function to launch "Global Fishing Watch," an online global fishing platform.
The platform consists of a globally accessible database that enables monitoring and tracking of the world's largest commercial fishing vessels.
"With the Global Fishing Watch technology, we can move forward the private sector and the government in the fisheries sector in a responsible and sustainable way," Susi said in a Maritime and Fisheries Ministry press release made available to Antara here Friday.
Oceana, SkyTruth and Google launched the public Beta of Global Fishing Watch in Washington DC on Thursday.
The new online technology platform allows anyone in the world free access to monitor and track the activities of the world's largest commercial fishing vessels in near real-time.
By providing the first free global view of commercial fishing, Global Fishing Watch delivers a powerful and unprecedented tool that can help to rebuild fish stocks and protect the oceans, which are threatened by global overfishing, illegal fishing and habitat destruction.
The announcement was made in conjunction with the "Our Ocean Conference" in Washington, an international gathering of ocean leaders hosted by Kerry. It was also attended by the Indonesian minister.
The Global Fishing Watch is an important step and a breakthrough for the Indonesian government, Susi said.
This will help the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries to encourage law enforcement policies globally in order to liberate the Indonesian waters from illegal fishing practices, the minister remarked.
This collaboration with Google, Oceana and SkyTruth will become an effective action plan to combat IUU fishing activities in the waters of Indonesia and other countries, Susi said.
"I believe this is a breakthrough that is needed by the world to fight IUU fishing.
"Everyone should be able to access the presence of fish and consume it as a source of life," the minister added.
Global Fishing Watch uses public broadcast data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS), collected by satellite and terrestrial receivers, to show the movement of vessels over time.
Every day, more than 20 million data points are added to AIS.
Global Fishing Watch uses this information to track vessel movement and classify it as "fishing" or "non-fishing" activity.
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