[ti:New Technology Stops Illegal Fishing on the Seas] [ar:Marsha James] [al: Environment and Science Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:02.93]this is the Environment and Science Report. [00:07.52]Experts estimate that one out of every five fish sold [00:13.52]was caught illegally. [00:15.89]They say the illegal fishing market is worth $23.5 billion a year. [00:26.00]It threatens food security and hurts the environment. [00:32.00]Officials are using new observational technology to fight illegal fishing. [00:39.23]"Hello to everybody. [00:40.50]Thank you for taking the time to join us here [00:43.17]in Harwell (UK) in the Operations Center [00:45.54]to what we call ¡®Project Eyes on the Seas,'" Long said. [00:48.56]That is Tony Long. [00:50.93]He leads the Ending Illegal Fishing program [00:55.00]for Pew Charitable Trusts. [00:57.82]The group created Project Eyes on the Seas. [01:02.00]Large three-dimensional images of a globe [01:06.65]can be seen on a video that plays behind him. [01:11.73]"It looks different from what you might expect [01:14.41]because this globe only shows you the vessels (boats) [01:18.04]that are coming into this system [01:19.76]from a live automated information system or AIS," Long said. [01:24.97]The screen shows there are 120,000 fishing boats that have AIS. [01:33.86]They are required to have the technology. [01:37.14]But those who are fishing illegally often turn it off. [01:43.40]The technology does not tell observers when that happens. [01:48.60]Project Eyes on the Seas combines satellite information [01:54.69]with secret government records on every ship's past activities. [02:01.05]"The same system the fishing vessels use to predict [02:04.37]where the fish are going to be, [02:06.08]we can bring that environmental source into this data," Long said. [02:08.60]Mr. Long says that permits investigators to understand exactly [02:15.60]where the fishing boats are operating. [02:18.75]The Pew team gives the information it gathers to port officials [02:24.72]to help them decide if they should take action against a ship. [02:30.12]The Pacific island nation of Palau was an early user of the technology. [02:37.68]Palau has one of the richest fishing areas in the world, [02:42.80]and wants to protect it. [02:45.16]Last year, [02:46.96]it announced a plan to ban commercial fishing [02:50.57]in a 630,000 square kilometer area. [02:54.71]K.B. Sakuma is a special adviser to the president of Palau. [03:01.23]He says Palau is trying to deal with a recent increase in illegal, [03:08.02]unsupervised and unreported fishing. [03:11.66]"And it's come to a head in the last year or two, [03:16.45]where [from] our southern island in the evening [03:21.19]you can see on the horizon just dotted lights of these illegal fishermen [03:26.16]that come into our waters, fill their holds with our fish, [03:31.00]our resources, our food security..." Sakuma said. [03:33.32]Mr. Sakuma hopes the information from the project [03:37.47]will help Palau fight fishing piracy. [03:41.51]And that's the VOA Learning English Environment and Science Report. [03:47.81]I'm Marsha James. [03:50.00]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51VOA.COM