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Research Article

Ocean sentinel albatrosses locate illegal vessels and provide the first estimate of the extent of nondeclared fishing

View ORCID ProfileHenri Weimerskirch, Julien Collet, Alexandre Corbeau, Adrien Pajot, Floran Hoarau, Cédric Marteau, Dominique Filippi, and Samantha C. Patrick
PNAS first published January 27, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915499117
Henri Weimerskirch
aCentre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé CNRS, UMR 7372 CNRS–Université de la Rochelle, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France;
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  • ORCID record for Henri Weimerskirch
  • For correspondence: henriw@cebc.cnrs.fr
Julien Collet
aCentre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé CNRS, UMR 7372 CNRS–Université de la Rochelle, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France;
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Alexandre Corbeau
aCentre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé CNRS, UMR 7372 CNRS–Université de la Rochelle, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France;
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Adrien Pajot
aCentre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé CNRS, UMR 7372 CNRS–Université de la Rochelle, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France;
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Floran Hoarau
bDirection de l’Environnement, Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, 97410 Saint Pierre, La Réunion, France;
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Cédric Marteau
bDirection de l’Environnement, Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, 97410 Saint Pierre, La Réunion, France;
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Dominique Filippi
cSextant Technology, Ltd., Wellington 6012, New Zealand;
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Samantha C. Patrick
dSchool of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, United Kingdom
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  1. Edited by Hugh P. Possingham, The Nature Conservancy, Sherwood, QLD, Australia, and approved December 28, 2019 (received for review September 9, 2019)

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Significance

New technological approaches to improving remote surveillance of the oceans are necessary if we are to implement effective conservation. Of particular concern is locating nondeclared and illegal fisheries that dramatically impact oceanic ecosystems. Here, we demonstrate that animal-borne, satellite-relayed data loggers both detected and localized fishing vessels over large oceanic sectors. Attraction of albatrosses to fishing vessels differed according to species and age. We found high proportions of nondeclared fishing vessels operating in international waters, as well as in some remote national seas. Our results demonstrate the potential of using animals as Ocean Sentinels for operational conservation.

Abstract

With threats to nature becoming increasingly prominent, in order for biodiversity levels to persist, there is a critical need to improve implementation of conservation measures. In the oceans, the surveillance of fisheries is complex and inadequate, such that quantifying and locating nondeclared and illegal fisheries is persistently problematic. Given that these activities dramatically impact oceanic ecosystems, through overexploitation of fish stocks and bycatch of threatened species, innovative ways to monitor the oceans are urgently required. Here, we describe a concept of “Ocean Sentinel” using animals equipped with state-of-the-art loggers which monitor fisheries in remote areas. Albatrosses fitted with loggers detecting and locating the presence of vessels and transmitting the information immediately to authorities allowed an estimation of the proportion of nondeclared fishing vessels operating in national and international waters of the Southern Ocean. We found that in international waters, more than one-third of vessels had no Automatic Identification System operating; in national Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), this proportion was lower on average, but variable according to EEZ. Ocean Sentinel was also able to provide unpreceded information on the attraction of seabirds to vessels, giving access to crucial information for risk-assessment plans of threatened species. Attraction differed between species, age, and vessel activity. Fishing vessels attracted more birds than other vessels, and juveniles both encountered fewer vessels and showed a lower attraction to vessels than adults. This study shows that the development of technologies offers the potential of implementing conservation policies by using wide-ranging seabirds to patrol oceans.

  • bio-logging
  • illegal fisheries
  • conservation
  • vessel attraction
  • seabird

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: henriw{at}cebc.cnrs.fr.
  • Author contributions: H.W. designed research; H.W., J.C., and A.C. performed research; J.C., A.C., A.P., F.H., C.M., D.F., and S.C.P. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; H.W., J.C., A.C., and A.P. analyzed data; and H.W. and S.C.P. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no competing interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • Data deposition: Tracking database and Radar detection events have been deposited in the online open access repository Figshare (https://figshare.com/s/2481d8e6cf4aff484ffe).

  • This article contains supporting information online at https://www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1915499117/-/DCSupplemental.

Published under the PNAS license.

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Ocean sentinel albatrosses locate illegal vessels and provide the first estimate of the extent of nondeclared fishing
Henri Weimerskirch, Julien Collet, Alexandre Corbeau, Adrien Pajot, Floran Hoarau, Cédric Marteau, Dominique Filippi, Samantha C. Patrick
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2020, 201915499; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1915499117

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Ocean sentinel albatrosses locate illegal vessels and provide the first estimate of the extent of nondeclared fishing
Henri Weimerskirch, Julien Collet, Alexandre Corbeau, Adrien Pajot, Floran Hoarau, Cédric Marteau, Dominique Filippi, Samantha C. Patrick
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2020, 201915499; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1915499117
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