A world leader in seafood, Norway is also a leading country when it comes to fisheries transparency. Now, it further strengthens its commitment to fisheries transparency by publishing data from its vessel monitoring system on the Global Fishing Watch map. The Nordic country is the first in Europe to do so.
With its long coastline and rich waters, Norway is a maritime country, and no one doubts that it is also a world power when it comes to seafood. Fishing is a vital part of its history and culture, but also of its economy. In terms of value, it is the second largest seafood exporter in the world, and even in challenging times like the present, with declining volumes, its export revenues continue to increase, according to the latest report from the Norwegian Seafood Council.
But, in addition, Norway is also a leader when it comes to fisheries transparency. As part of efforts to make information public wherever possible, the country has been sharing data showing the movements of its fishing fleet on its Fisheries Directorate website since 2019. Now in 2023, it takes another big step in transparency by publishing that data from its vessel tracking system also on the Global Fishing Watch map.
The vessel monitoring system currently covers the movements of around 600 industrial fishing vessels of at least 15 meters in length. Most of them operate in Norwegian waters and the northwest Atlantic Ocean. However, Norway intends to require all commercial fishing vessels to regularly transmit their position through its tracking system, so this number is expected to increase in the future.
"Wild living marine resources are a common good and belong to everyone," said Frank Bakke-Jensen, Director General of the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries. "When a commercial fishing fleet is licensed to utilize this common good, we are obliged and committed to share fisheries data documenting the environmental footprint of commercial fishing activity. We hope that others will follow this approach and share more fisheries data."
This way, Norway joins a growing number of countries that choose to share their vessel tracking data on this global map and thus increase their commitment to fisheries transparency. The last, paving the way for the rest in the Pacific, had been Papua New Guinea. As mentioned, the Nordic country is now the first European to join. "We hope its example will encourage other developed countries to demonstrate their commitment to transparency, sustainable fishing and ocean governance," stated Global Fishing Watch.
Norway is an influential voice on ocean and fisheries-related issues. This new commitment adds to others previously made by the country, such as the political declaration to tackle transnational organized crime in the global fishing industry that it made with eight other countries in 2018 and which now has the support of around 50 coastal nations. Known as the 'Copenhagen Declaration', the initiative includes a range of aid-oriented activities as well as a common digital service for those countries that partner with the declaration through the Norwegian Blue Justice Initiative.
Global Fishing Watch seeks to promote ocean governance through greater transparency of human activity at sea. Using cutting-edge technology, they turn big data into actionable information that they then share. By creating and publicly sharing map visualizations, data, and analysis tools, they facilitate scientific research and drive a transformation in the way the ocean is managed. By 2030, their goal is to monitor and visualize the impact of both industrial and small-scale offshore vessels, responsible for the vast majority of the world's seafood catch.