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A revolutionary partnership has risen to combat the illegal driftnet fishing activities believed to take place in the Mediterranean Sea. Marine conservation organization, The Black Fish, is combining efforts with ShadowView, a tech based organization, to develop UAS capable of observing the Mediterranean’s fishing activities.
In the first development of its kind, marine conservation organisation The Black Fish, in cooperation with the tech organisation ShadowView, has launched unmanned aircraft in search of illegal driftnet fishing in the Mediterranean Sea. The aircraft were launched over ports along the Italian cost in the las two weeks, most notably along the Northern and Eastern coast of Sicily.
The organisation deployed the new technology in a bid to monitor fishing activity and obtain evidence of illegal driftnets; a harmful practice outlawed by the United Nations in 1992 but still believed to take place widespread.
Wietse van der Werf, co-founder of The Black Fish: “Our recent port inspections have found multiple blacklisted ships still operating in Italian ports. Fisherman are concealing nets and illegality is difficult to trace but we are determined to locate illegality we believe to be there. The new UAS technology is offering us a great advantage by having eyes in the sky.”
The organisations investigation into illegal fishing in the Mediterranean region will run throughout July. Finding will be reported to the European Commission, which previously initiated international court action, forcing Italy to comply with European Union regulations on driftnet fishing, something which the country failed to do adequately in recent years.
Source: Press Release