Fighting IUU Fishing with the TRITON

IUU (Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated) fishing is cause for immediate and global concern. It threatens our oceans, our food supply, our fisherman, and our global economy. A variety of illicit and threatening behaviors fall under the umbrella of IUU, and varying bodies of authority have their nuanced and evolving approach to the matter, but there are several fundamental factors.

Illegal fishing involves any fishing behavior or activity that breaks established laws and regulations. These violations can include ignoring catch limits, catching and killing protected species, using harmful fishing gear and tactics, fishing without a permit, fishing in off-limits areas, and more. Not only do illegal fishing crimes cause harm to fisheries and steal catch from legal fisherman, they also disrupt the delicate balance of the ocean’s ecosystem, threaten biodiversity, upset food chains, and cause degradation and death of coral reefs.

Unreported fishing includes failing to report activity, underreporting total catch, as well as misreporting the size and species of fish within a catch. Unreported fishing convolutes and skews fisheries management. If yearly fishing averages are underestimated because of untruthful reporting, authorities will overestimate the population of available fish, leading to erroneously high fishing allowances and the dangerous decline of fisheries.

Unregulated fishing refers to the fishing of unmanaged species in unmanaged areas—typically hundreds of miles off the coast on the high seas. The lawless and piratical nature of the open ocean make these remote and rogue fishing operations very difficult to detect and combat. With unbridled freedom these operations use harmful gear and overfish to dangerously high degrees.

In the fight against IUU fishing, the TRITON AUSV offers a much-needed level of maritime domain awareness to improve MCS (Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance) operations. By performing persistent, autonomous, and covert monitoring, the TRITON can detect illegal or threatening fishing vessels and report them with near real-time data relay to authorities. Directed via satellite intelligence—and equipped with radar, sonar, hydrophones, and cameras—a TRITON can detect and track suspicious vessels, approach stealthily to avoid detection, deliver video evidence to authorities, and dive to avoid detection or damage. The TRITON can serve as a force multiplier, allowing authorities to cover more area and monitor more vessels than would be possible with traditional enforcement methods, and can even be deployed as fleets working in tandem for higher efficiency and extended rang across the networked TRITONS.

With autonomous vessels like the TRITON in play, rough seas are ahead for maritime malefactors.