10/02/14: Fish traps seen from space

A Google Earth image of a fishing
weir along the Persian Gulf coast.
Credit: Google Earth

Scientists from the University of British Colombia, Canada have been investigating the number of officially reported fish catches in the Persian Gulf.

Back in November - using satellite imagery from Google Earth -  researchers from the University of British Colombia estimated that 
there were 1,900 fishing weirs along the coast of the Persian Gulf during 2005 and that an estimated 31,000 tonnes of fish were caught that year. 

The official number reported by the seven countries in the region to the 
United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization was 5,260 tonnes. 

The study shows the potential for using remote-sensing approaches to identify and validate catch statistics and fisheries operations. "Time and again we've seen that global fisheries catch data don't add up," said Daniel Pauly, principal investigator with the Sea Around Us Project and the study's co-author. 

"Because countries don't provide reliable information on their fisheries' catches, we need to expand our thinking and look at other sources of information and new technologies to tell us about what's happening in our oceans."
Read the full article, published in the ICES Journal of Marine science here.