OceanPulse

Connecting Illegal Fishing Detection with Marine Ecosystem Impact

OceanPulse: Connecting Illegal Fishing Detection with Marine Ecosystem Impact

🌊 Hackathon Overview (36-Hour Implementation)

OceanPulse is a sustainable technology solution that detects illegal fishing activities and correlates them with fish migration patterns to provide a comprehensive understanding of marine ecosystem impacts. This project builds upon concepts like ShipSense but adds a critical ecological dimension.

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❗ The Problem

Illegal fishing threatens global marine ecosystems, with approximately 20% of all fish caught illegally. Traditional monitoring fails to connect vessel detection with ecological impact, creating an incomplete picture for conservation efforts.

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💡 Core Solution (36-Hour Implementation)

We will develop:

1. Ship Detection Module
   A neural network that identifies fishing vessels in satellite imagery and analyzes suspicious “dark vessel” behavior

2. Fish Migration Correlation
   An analysis engine that connects detected fishing activities to known fish migration routes and population data

3. Interactive Dashboard
   A visualization platform that displays both vessel activities and ecological impacts in an integrated map interface

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🧭 Key Datasets

• MarineCadastre Vessel Traffic
• OBIS Marine Species Access

🛰️ Ship Detection Datasets

• Global Fishing Watch: AIS tracking for 60,000+ fishing vessels
• Dark Vessel Dataset: 55,000+ AIS gap records from ShipSense

🐟 Fish Migration Datasets

• GBIF Marine Data: Species occurrence data
• NOAA Fisheries: Commercial fish stock + migration data
• OBIS Biodiversity: Ocean species distribution

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