Forum on Improving Transparency in Fisheries 

Identify and prosecute commercial fishing vessel involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing

Make Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data public  to better monitor territorial waters and strengthen surveillance and enforcement of fisheries laws

                                                 May 22, 2019 | 12:00NN                                                                                         Green Sun Hotel, Chino Roces Ave.,                                          Makati City

MEDIA BRIEFING:

Tracking Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated Fishing by Global Fishing Watch

Tony Long, Chief Executive Officer, Global Fishing Watch

Karagatan Patrol’s Report on Municipalities-Hotspot of Probable Illegal Fishing Activities

Marlito Guidote, Oceana External and Government Relations Director

Challenges to Policy Legislation and Implementation

Atty. Gloria Estenzo Ramos, Oceana Vice President

Fisheries and Maritime Security Situation

Undersecretary Jose Luis Alano, National Coast Watch Center Executive Director

Making VMS tracking data publicly available will pave the way for a new era of transparency in the Philippines. We would like to help government attain a level of transparency in fisheries and to make possible effective regulation and monitoring of our fishing fleets, as well as the foreign fleets within Philippine waters. If this happens, the Philippines will join Indonesia and Peru in providing proprietary information on their fishing vessels through an online platform viewable by anyone, including governments, fishery managers, seafood buyers, researchers, and citizens. They will understand the impact of overfishing and the urgency of the need to work together to protect our oceans.

Indonesia became the first nation to make its proprietary VMS data available in 2017 via the Global Fishing Watch (GFW) online platform, which tracks the movements of commercial fishing vessels in near real-time. Peru followed in October 2018 in sharing its VMS data. This month, the Chilean government announced it has agreed to make its VMS data publicly available through the GFW as a move to redouble its efforts to fight illegal fishing. Costa Rica, Panama and Namibia have made public commitments to join the platform.

GFW makes vessel tracking information available to the public through an interactive online map and downloadable data. Anyone with an internet connection can trace the movements of more than 65,000 commercial fishing boats, along with their name and flag state, in near real time. Users can create heat maps to see patterns of commercial fishing activity, view tracks of individual vessels and overlay information like the locations of marine protected areas or different countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ).