U.S. Falls Short on Transparency at Sea.

• Position: TRACKING DEVICES

The U.S.'s requirements for transparency of fishing vessels continues to fall short, maintains an analysis by Oceana, which says there is a need for the U.S. government to expand regulations and require more fishing vessels to use public tracking devices.

Public vessel tracking is enabled by an automatic identification system (AIS), which originally was developed to reduce vessel collisions, but it also has become an invaluable tool for monitoring fishing vessel activity. These devices broadcast a vessel's location, speed, direction, and other identifying information, providing key details that, when analyzed, can demonstrate when a vessel is fishing and infer what type of fishing it is engaged in.

Expanding transparency will help bring to light suspicious behaviors, protect our ocean habitats and wildlife, and discourage illicit activity like illegal fishing and human rights abuses.

Oceana's analysis found that 12% of the more than 19,000 commercial fishing vessels registered in the U.S. fleet are required to carry AIS devices. The U.S. mandates that fishing vessels 65 feet or longer carry AIS devices and transmit signals within 12 nautical miles from the coast. In contrast, the European Union requires all...