https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-024-00459-0
Research
Identification of suspicious behavior through anomalies in the tracking data of fishing vessels
1
Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos (IFISC), CSIC-UIB, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain
2
Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados (IMEDEA), CSIC-UIB, 07190, Esporles, Illes Balears, Spain
3
AZTI Marine Research, 20110, Pasaia, País Vasco, Spain
4
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), and Computational Biosciences Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), 23955, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
5
Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), 48940, Leioa, País Vasco, Spain
6
IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Plaza Euskadi 5, 48009, Bilbao, País Vasco, Spain
a jorge@ifisc.uib-csic.es, jorgeprodriguezg@gmail.com
Received:
3
November
2023
Accepted:
4
March
2024
Published online:
21
March
2024
Automated positioning devices can generate large datasets with information on the movement of humans, animals and objects, revealing patterns of movement, hot spots and overlaps among others. However, in the case of Automated Information Systems (AIS), attached to vessels, observed strange behaviors in the tracking datasets may come from intentional manipulation of the electronic devices. Thus, the analysis of anomalies can provide valuable information on suspicious behavior. Here, we analyze anomalies of fishing vessel trajectories obtained with the Automatic Identification System. The map of silent anomalies, those that occur when positioning data are absent for more than 24 hours, shows that they are most likely to occur closer to land, with 87.1% of anomalies observed within 100 km of the coast. This behavior suggests the potential of identifying silence anomalies as a proxy for illegal activities. With the increasing availability of high-resolution positioning of vessels and the development of powerful statistical analytical tools, we provide hints on the automatic detection of illegal activities that may help optimize the management of fishing resources.
Key words: Automatic Identification System (AIS) / Fishing vessels / Tracking data / Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) / Marine Protected Areas (MPA)
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-024-00459-0.
© The Author(s) 2024
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