Mexico Ushers in Greater Transparency by Publicly Tracking Fishing Vessel Activity - Oceana

Victory | December 1, 2021

Mexico Ushers in Greater Transparency by Publicly Tracking Fishing Vessel Activity

The Mexican government released its fishing vessel data on a publicly available government portal and is being uploaded into Global Fishing Watch (GFW), a platform that monitors fishing vessels worldwide using satellite technology. This victory greatly increases transparency in the industry by allowing the public to monitor where, when, and how often fishing vessels in Mexico’s seas are operating. This victory would not be possible without campaigning by Oceana and our allies. Oceana first requested fishing vessel data from the government in 2018 but was denied. Oceana successfully appealed the decision to the National Institute of Information Access (INAI) and the government’s fisheries agency delivered fishing vessel data from 2012 to June 2018 to Oceana. The agency has since published more data on an online portal and will continue to update the data monthly. GFW, which was co-founded by Oceana, has uploaded Mexico’s data from 2020 and is awaiting data for 2021 and 2022. Based on this newly released data, Oceana published a report in May 2021 that found 236 instances of possible illegal fishing in seven of the country’s marine protected areas.