Geoffrey Muldoon
In the fight against illegal fishing, Pacific nations are increasingly turning to technology for visibility over their waters
Stretching across an expanse of ocean larger than the landmass of Africa, the Pacific region hosts some of the richest and most vulnerable waters on Earth. Its currents are home to migratory tuna stocks that supply global markets, coastal ecosystems that underpin the identities of multitudinous cultures and vast marine corridors preserving biodiversity.
Papua New Guinea’s waters, which cover more than 926,000 square miles, or 2.4 million square kilometers, are home to some of the most productive tuna fisheries in the world. Meanwhile, in the waters of Southeast Asia a third of the world’s coastal and marine habitats can be found. The Pacific region offers a wealth of ecological and cultural diversity across a seemingly infinite seascape. And yet, the sheer scale that defines the region also exposes its greatest challenge.
Indeed, for decades, Pacific nations have had to navigate the effects of limited patrol fleets, soaring fuel costs and shifting resource dynamics all while facing a scourge of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU). According to one report, the total annual volume of tuna product harvested or transhipped in the Western Central Pacific involving IUU activity is estimated at 192,186 tonnes, worth some $333 million — a sizeable threat that harms fish stocks, undermines lawful fishers, deprives island states of resource revenues and threatens coastal communities that rely on fish for sustenance and income .
“In many ways, the Pacific is an ocean too large to patrol and too valuable to leave unseen,” says Geoffrey Muldoon, Global Fishing Watch’s director of program delivery. “That means fisheries authorities have frequently been overstretched and bad actors are left free to operate.”
Against this backdrop, transparency has emerged not as an abstract ideal but as a practical and effective instrument of good ocean governance. New open-data platforms are enabling governments to see beyond the horizon: tracking vessel activity in near real-time, sharing intelligence across borders and giving small island states insights they never previously had.
“To protect the ocean, we need to see and understand everything that happens at sea,” notes Muldoon. “And we need to empower institutions and people to act on that knowledge. That’s the power of data and transparency.”
We spoke with Muldoon to explore how open data is reshaping maritime governance across the world’s largest ocean, revealing the shifts in power, policy and practice that are helping the region’s nations strengthen control over their waters, protect vital fisheries and chart a more secure future in an era of accelerating change.
The Pacific region faces unique challenges in managing its vast and diverse marine resources. What does transparency actually look like when implemented in such an extensive region — and how can it help build trust among countries, fleets and coastal communities that rely on the same waters?
It’s critical to understand the scale of the Pacific region and the ocean that ties it together. Scattered across an area of 33 million square kilometers, Pacific nations are bound not by land but by the world’s largest and deepest ocean. For many countries in the region, their exclusive economic zones (EEZ) alone dwarf their landmass. So, the Pacific is an immense and diverse blue space at the very heart of our planet.
This immensity is also what makes management so difficult. Fishing vessels travel in and out of national waters with speed and dexterity, exploiting vast distances and limited enforcement capacity. Surveillance crews must watch over territories larger than continents. And climate change is shifting the very foundations of the marine environment — moving fish stocks and placing new pressures on communities already navigating economic vulnerability.
At Global Fishing Watch, we need to take all of this into context and ask ourselves what transparency looks like in a region this vast and complex. For us, it all starts with open data. This means information that tracks vessel activity such as vessel monitoring system (VMS) or automatic identification system (AIS) data. It means access to shared lists of authorized fishing vessels and their beneficial owners on public registries. And it means ensuring this data remains readily accessible for monitoring and enforcement purposes.
But transparency is not only operational — it’s institutional. It is fundamental to decision-making, fosters accountability, drives better monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) efforts and is central to equitable and inclusive ocean governance. Transparency that delivers shareable data helps to build trust because the same information is visible to all. And through that trust, Pacific nations can deepen regional solidarity, coordinate their monitoring and enforcement efforts, share IUU risks more openly and hold decision-makers to account. Data-driven transparency enables the Pacific to speak with one voice.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing remains a major issue in the Pacific and across the Asia region. How can Global Fishing Watch technology shift the balance of power in monitoring and enforcement — and who needs to act to make that happen?
IUU fishing has historically flourished in the ocean space because of a lack of both transparency and good data. In large seascapes such as the Pacific, authorities are reliant on seeing and knowing where bad actors are in order to prevent them from engaging in IUU. But data voids make effective management impossible, and this risks undermining ambitious new agreements to protect the ocean.
By making AIS data public and accessible, Global Fishing Watch is democratizing access to information and enabling Pacific Island nations with limited surveillance budgets to level the enforcement playing field. In doing so, we’re shifting the balance of power in monitoring and enforcement by reshaping who has access to critical information, who can act on it, and how quickly and effectively they can respond. Transparency redistributes power, ensuring that equitable access to information equips Pacific Small Island Developing States to combat illegal fishing and advance stronger, more accountable ocean governance.
What examples have you seen where open data from Global Fishing Watch has directly influenced decision-making and enforcement actions in the Pacific?
Global Fishing Watch provides annual data and analysis support to four comprehensive surveillance initiatives led by the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA): Operation Rai Balang, Operation Tui Moana, Operation Island Chief and Operation Kurukuru. These operations cover more than 21 million square kilometers of FFA members’ waters and adjacent high seas. Our remote-sensing data and technology tools are capable of monitoring historical fishing activity across this vast area, and our risk-based analysis helps enforcement agencies target patrols and deploy surface and air assets to where they are most effective.
In early 2025, three Indonesian flagged vessels were sighted operating suspiciously in Papua New Guinean waters. Global Fishing Watch provided Papua New Guinean authorities with a detailed analysis of the vessels indicating that they were disabling their AIS and exhibiting movement patterns and speeds consistent with fishing activity. By overlaying additional Global Fishing Watch datasets including Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Sentinel-2 and LandSat-8 and Night Light detections (VIIRS), we were able to verify the vessels were operating in hotspots in Papua New Guinean waters ultimately leading to the vessels’ apprehension and a full investigation into their activities by local authorities.
Pacific Island nations have strong cultural and economic ties to the ocean but also face challenges balancing sovereignty with regional collaboration. How can transparency through open data empower these countries to strengthen enforcement without compromising national control?
I believe that transparency through open data can enhance sovereignty for Pacific Island countries—rather than dilute or diminish it. Increasingly, Pacific Island nations are turning to transparency and open data to strengthen control over their vast maritime domains, recognizing how difficult and costly it is to manage these waters without modern tools. Many Pacific states oversee maritime zones far larger than their landmasses, facing the daily challenge of monitoring millions of square kilometers of resource-rich ocean with only a handful of patrol boats, aircraft and enforcement officers. In this reality, transparency and regional cooperation are essential to achieving effective ocean governance.
Moreover, within this context sharing information across Pacific Island nations supports enforcement and collaboration without eroding national interests. It enables collective oversight of vessel activity, facilitates more cost-effective operations such as shared intelligence and coordinated joint patrols and allows limited enforcement assets to be deployed more efficiently.
Ultimately, transparency is increasingly seen by Pacific Island nations as a sovereignty multiplier — not a sovereignty risk. Open data provides governments with greater knowledge, stronger control, more effective enforcement and more strategic collaboration, all while safeguarding national interests and easing the immense pressure of monitoring the open ocean.
The Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) region currently contributes almost 60 percent of the global harvest of tuna. How are countries responding to the challenges of maintaining sustainable tuna fisheries and how can Global Fishing Watch data and tools support them?
The challenge for Pacific Island countries is no longer just managing fish stocks — it’s also about defending the economic sovereignty of the region while adapting to a rapidly changing ocean. Establishing regional rules, monitoring requirements and harvest strategies through the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) remains the most effective way to manage transboundary stocks. Likewise, working through the FFA remains the most influential path to strengthening MCS through joint surveillance and at-sea monitoring to deter IUU fishing. Markets and trade rules and international fisheries subsidy reforms are other important levers for managing fishing capacity and encouraging more responsible fishing practices.
While implementing these more established responses remains critical to the sustainable harvesting of Pacific fish stocks, climate change is now the most nascent threat to the long-term prosperity of Pacific Island nations. Climate change leading to warming oceans is predicted to have a major impact on tuna distributions. The risk is that fish will move outside the EEZs of some island states and into the high seas or the EEZs of others creating a canvas of winners and losers. Of most concern is that these distribution shifts will threaten the revenues of many island states reliant on fishing access fees. The power of the Pacific has always been its equitable approach to the management of a regional transboundary resource. Climate change is threatening not only that status quo but reducing the region’s surveillance ability.
In this new world order, digital transparency through AIS and VMS data will become even more important. Global Fishing Watch’s data driven mission will continue to act as an operational multiplier providing countries with greater visibility of fishing activity in their EEZs, distributing tools and training to strengthen countries’ analysis and enforcement capabilities, directing patrol boats and surveillance aircraft to where they are most needed and supplying data on fishing fleet behavior responses to climate-driven stock shifts. At the end of the day, the greatest benefit Pacific states will obtain is a political one as open data and transparency create a shared operating picture across the region, strengthening cooperation between neighbours and levelling the information playing field.
As we close in on 2030 and the global 30x30 target, where do you see the biggest opportunities — and threats — for Pacific countries in harnessing transparency and technology to meet conservation and sustainability goals?
As the deadline for meeting the global 30×30 targets looms, Pacific Island nations are navigating a sea of opportunity and risk. These small island nations all face the same reality: to monitor and manage millions of square kilometers of ocean, they must lean into digital monitoring platforms and open data.
Over the past decade, satellite monitoring and artificial intelligence-driven vessel detection have reshaped what is possible in ocean governance and enforcement — from tracking fishing vessels to designating, monitoring and managing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Technology can embolden countries to be more ambitious in meeting their 30×30 targets, and reassure stakeholders and the international community that not only are MPA commitments real, digital monitoring is ensuring these areas are effectively managed. Open data is also helping governments demonstrate the economic benefits of conservation.
Yet even as technology and transparency create unprecedented opportunities to meet 30×30 commitments, several systemic, financial, governance and ecological obstacles limit their full impact. Enforcement and capacity gaps persist across vast ocean territories. Sustainable financing remains elusive. Questions about data sovereignty complicate the use of open data. Climate change is shifting tuna stocks and threatening the effectiveness of static MPAs. And regional coordination continues to be a challenge.
Still, “visibility” is becoming a game-changer. Digital monitoring not only strengthens surveillance but also enhances diplomatic leverage — empowering Pacific nations to show the world how illegal fishing and climate pressures are reshaping their waters, and to demonstrate their efforts to confront these threats head-on.