🎣 How to battle illegal fishing: 1. Detect when ships disable their transponders 2. Use machine learning to find trends Watch how a trawler, the Oyang 77, disables its transponder to intrude into Argentina's waters. See how it fits a global pattern.

A team of scientists analyzed patterns in how fishing boats disable their transponder data across the world's oceans. Hot spots: - West Africa - Argentina's coast - Near the Galapagos and off Peru - The Bering Sea - The Northwest Pacific

🎣There's a "catch": It's not illegal to disable transponders, and there are good reasons to do so, including hiding from pirates and competitors. Scientists used machine learning to separate the innocent transponder disabling from the nefarious.

Some say the days of illegal fishing are ending as consumers switch to farmed fish. Yet aquaculture has only kept pace w/ growth in seafood consumption & has not replaced wild caught seafood. Since the 90s, wild seafood catch has stayed steady at about 100 million tons per year.

🐟🐠If aquaculture doesn't stop illegal fishing, maybe technology will. Read more in Climate Lab #8:

To see how I made the map and chart in this article, check out these notebooks on @observablehq: - Map: - Chart:

Programming note: The Climate Lab column will be off for a few months while I'm on paternity leave. To get notified when I'm back, sign up here:

A beautiful looking article to match the quality of the content!

Really interesting reporting! Love the heat map. Also, congratulations!

Really excellent, interesting piece!