Abstract
Fisheries are tasked with the critical responsibility of enforcing management plans and regulations to ensure that fish populations remain sustainable and that marine ecosystems stay healthy. These regulations are designed to balance human needs with the long-term viability of aquatic life. However, despite these efforts, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing continues to pose a serious threat to sustainable fisheries management. Such activities not only endanger fish stocks but also undermine the efforts of law-abiding fishers and disrupt the ecological balance of marine environments. To address these challenges, this project aims to develop advanced visual analytics tools and data-driven workflows that can assist authorities and stakeholders in detecting, understanding, and mitigating illegal fishing activities. By leveraging data from vessel tracking systems, onboard monitoring devices, and other sources, these tools will help identify the types of fish caught by specific vessels, flag patterns that may suggest illegal behavior, and generate intuitive visualizations that bring hidden activities to light.
Ultimately, the project aims to identify the ships that are responsible for illegal fishing and thereby also provide a workflow that will help with catching as well as investigating other suspicious ships that might be involved in illegal activity.