Theia flagging possible illegal fishing, with satellite imagery of a fishing fleet working the East China Sea

Maritime Capability

IUU Fishing Detection

Detect illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activity across exclusive economic zones worldwide, including the vessels that go dark to avoid it.

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The Problem

Where illegal fishing goes unseen.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing costs the global economy an estimated $23 billion annually. It depletes fish stocks, damages marine ecosystems, undermines food security, and often intersects with forced labor and organized crime.

Vessels fishing illegally frequently disable their tracking systems to avoid detection. Patrol-based enforcement covers a fraction of the ocean at any given time, and AIS-based monitoring only works for vessels that cooperate. The result is vast stretches of ocean where illegal fishing goes undetected and unreported.

Nine dark fishing vessels detected inside an exclusive economic zone

How Theia Detects

Detection that does not depend on cooperative signals.

01 / Dark

Dark Fishing Vessel Detection

Satellite imagery detects fishing vessels that have disabled their AIS transponders, operating in areas where they should not be.

02 / Boundary

EEZ Boundary Monitoring

Theia monitors exclusive economic zone boundaries continuously and identifies vessels crossing into protected waters without authorization, regardless of AIS status.

03 / Pattern

Behavioral Pattern Analysis

Fishing vessels exhibit distinctive patterns: loitering, trawling tracks, transshipment at sea. Theia identifies these from satellite data and flags anomalies.

04 / Transfer

Transshipment Detection

IUU catch is often transferred to refrigerated cargo ships at sea to avoid port inspection. Theia detects these events with satellite-based proximity detection.

By the Numbers