A productive ocean

Promoting initiatives to eradicate IUU fishing

Period: From 2020
Organization: Fisheries Agency

Fishing grounds have deteriorated due to the overexploitation by illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, such that measures to combat IUU fishing have become a matter of global importance. The Fisheries Agency supports initiatives to build fishery management systems in line with actual local conditions in developing countries and teach techniques with a view to eradicating IUU fishing in order to promote the sustainable use of marine resources and conserve the ocean environment.

Collecting real-time information on
red-tide outbreaks, IUU fishing,
and other concerns
Training human resources, building databases,
and producing manuals
Source: Materials provided by the Government of Japan

Indonesian coastal fishing village project based on ODA provided by the Government of Japan

Period: From 2017
Organizations: North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT; Indonesia), University of Tokyo, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, Hokkaido University, University of Maine, and others

An environmental and resource monitoring study based on the use of smartphones has been jointly designed and implemented together with small-scale coastal fisheries operators in Indonesia. People involved in local fishing industries use their smartphones to take photos of five subjects: water quality, harmful plankton, fish catches, illegal fishing operations, and plastic waste in the ocean. They then forward these geotagged photographs to the BPPT and other governmental research institutions through a GIS app that was developed for this project. Analytical results are then shared as feedback with local areas. In the second phase of this project, which began in 2020 (and is known as the Ciguatera Project), monitoring functions related to food safety, information for dealing with tsunamis, and other aspects of a safe ocean are also slated to become incorporated.

Maps shown by the FishGIS app
Reference: Building capacity for coastal monitoring by
local small-scale fishery operators
(PICES, https://meetings.pices.int/projects/FishGIS)
User interface for the FishGIS app