
Protecting Our Oceans
Protecting our wild fisheries through digital surveillance of our precious oceans.
Project Overview
The Problem
How We Are Solving It
This project applies satellite monitoring, artificial intelligence, big data analytics and data visualization techniques such as virtual reality to recognize these vessels, blacklist them, and ultimately prosecute the owners to protect our global fisheries and marine ecosystems.
The Result
The consortium’s efforts are already paying off with Canada being recognized as a leader in combatting illegal fishing and protecting marine ecosystems.
In February 2021, the Government of Canada awarded MDA a three-year, $7-million contract to use made-in-Canada RADARSAT-2 and RADARSAT Constellation Mission satellite technologies to keep watch over millions of square kilometers of ocean and detect vessels engaging in illegal fishing around the world.
The Protecting Our Oceans project is developing leading technologies to support MDA’s Dark Vessel Detection program which has recently been deployed to protect the ecologically fragile Galapagos Islands, in partnership with the Government of Canada.
MDA will also support the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, which represents 17 Pacific Island member states to protect the environment and better manage wild stocks.
This work has also led to significant fines for five foreign vessels that threatened a sustainable fishing industry.
Project Lead
Project Partners
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“The collaboration with our Supercluster partners is bringing new thinking and ideas into how to solve illegal fishing with the use of advanced technologies such as behavioural analytics and immersive visualization”
Read our Impact Story Chief Product Engineer, MDA