There's a good chance that in the time it takes you to read this story, a crew of seafaring criminals has hauled stolen fish worth tens of thousands of dollars onto a boat. These illegal acts can take many forms: fishing without a license, violating a protected marine reserve, using banned gear, not reporting a catch, or breaking any number of other fisheries laws. Illegal fishing takes place on a grand scale every day, accounting for up to $23.5 billion in stolen seafood yearly— or about 1 in every 5 fish taken from our oceans.

Project Eyes on the Seas, a joint initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts and the U.K.-based Satellite Applications Catapult, combines satellite monitoring of the oceans with other information, such as fishing-vessel databases and oceanographic data, to help authorities detect suspicious fishing activity far more efficiently than has been possible in the past— often in near-real time.

This is a truncated version of an article by Tony Long, who directs efforts to end illegal fishing at the Pew Charitable Trust.

For the full article, click here.