Global Fishing Watch expands transparency push at Our Ocean Conference

Global Fishing Watch used the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa to announce new partnerships, policy commitments and technology initiatives aimed at making fishing activity more visible and accountable. The moves include new transparency steps with Panama and Madagascar, plus a project to build the first global map of fishing activity covering both industrial and small-scale vessels. Why it matters: - Ocean transparency is becoming a practical tool for fisheries enforcement, scientific research and resource management. - Better vessel tracking and public data sharing can help governments detect illegal fishing, protect coastal livelihoods and manage marine resources more sustainably. - The new commitments add momentum to a broader push for accountability at sea across Africa, Latin America and beyond. What happened: - Global Fishing Watch announced new measures at the 11th Our Ocean Conference as the event concluded in Mombasa, Kenya. - The announcements included a new partnership with Madagascar and an agreement with Panama’s fisheries authority to publicly share vessel tracking data from the domestic fishing fleet. - Participating governments endorsed the Mombasa Declaration, a new international call to action on fisheries transparency. - More than 16 governments from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and the Pacific backed the declaration. - The declaration was developed with support from the Coalition for Fisheries Transparency, a group that includes Global Fishing Watch. The details: - Panama committed to publicly share vessel monitoring system data from nearly 200 domestic fishing vessels through the Global Fishing Watch map. - The Panama move expands visibility into fishing activity in the country’s waters. - Panama has also agreed to disclose beneficial ownership information for its international fleet. - Global Fishing Watch’s collaboration with Panama began in 2019 with the first public sharing of tracking data from the country’s international fleet. - Madagascar’s Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy said it will formally expand its partnership with Global Fishing Watch after nearly two years of collaboration. - The Madagascar partnership will focus on vessel tracking, joint analysis, capacity development and stronger monitoring, control and surveillance operations. - Global Fishing Watch launched a new partnership with the Minderoo Foundation to create the first global map of fishing activity covering both industrial fleets and small-scale vessels. - The project will combine tracking data with advanced satellite imagery and analytics. - The initiative aims to map millions of artisanal vessels that are largely missing from existing datasets. - The project is slated to deploy on July 1, 2026. - Global Fishing Watch said the map will help governments and fisheries managers better understand human activity at sea and inform policies to combat overfishing. - At the Scientific and Research Pre-Conference Symposium, chief scientist David Kroodsma presented research using artificial intelligence and high-resolution satellite imagery to track small-scale fishing activity. - The analysis detected more than 30,000 small-scale vessels along Africa’s coastline. - The research also identified areas where industrial and small-scale fisheries compete for the same resources. - An official side event titled From Africa to the World: Scaling Fisheries Transparency Reforms highlighted reforms in Ghana and Cameroon to embed transparency and accountability into fisheries policy. Between the lines: - The conference showed that fisheries transparency is moving from a voluntary ideal to a policy expectation. - The mix of public data sharing, satellite monitoring and AI analysis reflects a shift toward real-time oversight of fishing activity. - Africa emerged as a focal point, both for new partnerships and for policy leadership on enforcement and accountability. - The push also reflects a broader recognition that small-scale fishing has been undercounted in existing monitoring systems. What’s next: - The Minderoo Foundation project is expected to go live on July 1, 2026. - Panama’s public sharing of domestic fleet VMS data will extend the country’s transparency commitments. - Madagascar’s expanded partnership is expected to deepen technical cooperation on vessel tracking and enforcement. - Global Fishing Watch and its partners will try to convert the new commitments into durable policy and operational changes across more fisheries. The bottom line: - Global Fishing Watch is trying to make transparency the default for global fisheries, using policy commitments, government partnerships and new monitoring tools to show who is fishing, where and under what rules.