Global Fishing Watch and AI2 Skylight Join Forces to Combat Illegal Ocean Activity

Two of the world's leading ocean monitoring organizations announced a strategic partnership during Climate Week, combining 12 years of fisheries data with AI-powered enforcement tools — a move they say is essential to meeting the global target of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. The panel, hosted by Devex, laid bare the scale of the problem: three-quarters of the world's industrial fishing fleet still operates beyond public view.

• Global Fishing Watch and AI2's Skylight sign MOU to merge ocean monitoring platforms serving 95+ countries
• 75% of industrial fishing vessels and 25% of merchant ships still can't be publicly tracked, fueling illegal fishing and trafficking
• Panama arrests trawlers 180 miles offshore in landmark enforcement action powered by combined data from both organizations
• AI-driven "proactive intelligence" aims to alert governments to illegal vessels before they reach port

Why it matters: About 3 billion people depend on the ocean economy, yet the vast majority of industrial activity at sea happens out of public sight — enabling illegal fishing, trafficking, and ecosystem destruction that devastates coastal communities' food and economic security.