Satellite imagery and artificial intelligence track illegal fishing vessels
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Authorities in Argentina fined a fishing vessel named Bao Feng nearly 690,000 Swiss francs based solely on digital evidence from satellites and radar.
The boat was observed moving slowly and changing course within Argentina's exclusive economic zone in January 2026. Because the ship did not transmit its location via standard tracking systems, officials used a combination of satellite imagery and movement patterns to prove it was likely using illegal nets.
This case marks a shift in maritime law because the penalty was issued without physically intercepting the boat at sea. Environmentalists and tech experts use these tools to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates accounts for one in five fish caught globally.
Jennifer Raynor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison explains that while individual technologies like Automatic Identification Systems have gaps, combining radar, satellite images, and artificial intelligence creates a more transparent view of the oceans. Algorithms can identify specific fishing styles, such as longlining or ring nets, by analyzing how a ship moves over time. Organizations like Earthrace Conservation use these data feeds to coordinate patrols in regions like Panama and Costa Rica.
Sebastian Berger leads these efforts from a former US-Navy ship, using a platform called Skylight to find anomalies in maritime data. While technology identifies potential targets, humans still perform the final verification by boarding ships to inspect licenses and catch. Panama's Minister of Environment, Juan Carlos Navarro, stated that the government views artificial intelligence as a tool to expand the work of human analysts rather than a replacement for legal judgment.
