Three good IUU platforms are free or near-free. The question is who holds your fleet's data afterwards.
Global Fishing Watch publishes its fishing effort data to anyone with a browser, Skylight gives its platform to governments at no cost, and OceanMind sells analysis with an inspection plan attached. Each of those models carries a condition a fisheries ministry should read before signing.
Our fisheries intelligence platform is a working traceability system, not a research demonstrator. It runs bait-to-plate provenance for seafood buyers and IUU analytics for the authorities that police the EEZ, built by a data-science team whose fisheries work is supported by the United Nations World Food Programme and the European Space Agency.
Side by side
| Attribute | Represented by UnstratFisheries traceability & enforcement | Global Fishing WatchApparent fishing effort dataset, public map and APIs1United States / international non-profit | Skylight (Allen Institute for AI)Skylight maritime monitoring platform234United States | OceanMindPrecision Regulation service and PSMART port state measures tool56United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary role135 | Bait-to-plate seafood traceability on our fisheries intelligence platform, plus analytics against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing | Mapping of apparent fishing effort from AIS, published as a dataset, a public map and APIs | Real-time intelligence to stop IUU fishing, surfacing named vessel behaviours as events | Monitoring, control and surveillance support: data analysis, pattern detection and risk triage for coastal, port and flag states |
| Data sources stated1256 | EEZ-wide monitoring fused from satellite and vessel data | AIS, over 110 million messages a day, combined with public vessel registry information | AIS at 100 million messages a day, night lights, Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Landsat 8-9 and commercial satellite data | Satellite imagery and other remote monitoring with AI and data science; PSMART processes port-entry requests alongside billions of AIS data points |
| Coverage of small vessels12In most developing fisheries the boats that matter are the ones AIS never sees. Any platform's answer to this question is the platform's real limit. | Not published | Documented limitation: roughly 100,000 of an estimated 3.3 million fishing vessels carry AIS, under 1 per cent of vessels below 12 m, about 20 per cent from 12 to 24 m and up to 90 per cent above 24 m | Not published as a percentage; night lights and optical detection are stated to surface vessels not broadcasting AIS | Not published |
| Catch and supply-chain traceability126 | Bait-to-plate provenance with quality assurance and supply-chain guarantee for seafood buyers | Not published; the dataset covers apparent fishing effort and vessel identity, not landings or catch chain | Not published; the platform publishes vessel-behaviour events | Not published as catch traceability; PSMART assesses port-entry requests against vessel history and licensing |
| Enforcement output1256 | Evidence-grade reporting for enforcement and export compliance | Public map, downloadable rasters, APIs and an R package; no inspection product | Automatically generated events including dark rendezvous, standard rendezvous, fishing, entry into a defined EEZ or MPA, and speed range, available through an API | Tailored risk reports naming potential violations, with inspection plans for onboard teams and real-time patrol guidance during live operations |
| Published accuracy claim16 | Not published | No accuracy figure published; two convolutional neural networks trained on over a thousand manually labelled vessel tracks | Not published as a figure | 99 per cent accuracy in fishing detection insights, stated on the PSMART page |
| Who can see your fleet1325Transparency is the point of Global Fishing Watch and it has changed the field. It is still a decision, not a default, for a state whose own fleet's grounds become visible to competitors. | Delivered to the ministry and its enforcement chain; independent, non-aligned origin with no political exposure to a major-power ecosystem | By design, public: anyone with an internet connection can trace the movements of over 100,000 commercial fishing boats with name and flag state | Platform access with a public map also published; the programme is run by the Allen Institute for AI and shares data and models with partners, including by open-sourcing models | Analysis delivered to the authority; the vendor also publishes multi-year trend work and initiatives on non-compliance |
| Cost model135 | Not published | Map, downloads and APIs are open to anyone with an internet connection | Free to government, regional and non-governmental organisations worldwide working to protect seas from illegal fishing and other maritime crimes | Not published; contact-led engagement |
| Tailoring to national law1256 | Not published as a rules engine; reporting is built for enforcement and export compliance | Not offered; a global dataset with common methodology | User-defined areas such as EEZs and MPAs, and speed thresholds | Custom risk models tailored to national regulations and priorities, with a rules engine covering thousands of regulations |
| Capacity building136 | One accountable team from first briefing through delivery and in-region sustainment | Map user guide, API documentation and R package published | Resource centre and information sessions published; deployment, technology and capacity-building partners named as central to the programme | Training, hands-on assistance and intelligence services so authorities can manage port-entry investigations independently |
| Institutional backing145 | United Nations World Food Programme and the European Space Agency | Non-profit; flagship dataset published with peer-reviewed methodology in Science, 2018 | Allen Institute for AI, with data sources drawn from NASA, the European Space Agency and Maxar | Independent organisation working with authorities, RFMOs and quasi-governmental bodies |
Competitor values are quoted from the vendor documents listed under Sources, as published on the date shown. Configurations vary, so treat every row as a starting point for the evaluation rather than a like-for-like test result.
What the table means
Free is a price, not a business model.
Skylight is free to governments and NGOs and it is a serious platform: AIS at 100 million messages a day, Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2, Landsat, night lights, and event types that name dark rendezvous and EEZ entry directly. Global Fishing Watch gives the effort data away and documents its own limits more honestly than most commercial vendors. Both are funded by parties whose priorities are not yours, and both can change scope, retire a data source or alter access terms without a contract to argue about. If your enforcement chain becomes dependent on a philanthropic programme, plan for the day it is re-scoped.
AIS is the ceiling everyone shares.
Global Fishing Watch states it plainly: around 100,000 of an estimated 3.3 million fishing vessels carry AIS, under 1 per cent of boats below 12 metres. For a coastal state whose fleet is mostly under 12 metres, an AIS-led picture describes foreign industrial vessels well and the domestic fleet barely at all. That is exactly why traceability at the landing matters. The platform follows the fish from bait to plate, which puts evidence in the chain for vessels that never appear on a heat map.
Public transparency and national enforcement are not the same requirement.
The Global Fishing Watch map is open by design, and that openness has done more for fisheries oversight than any procurement. It also means the grounds your fleet works are visible to every competitor and every buyer. OceanMind sits at the other end: analysis delivered to the authority, custom risk models against national regulations, inspection plans written for the boarding team. A ministry should decide which of those it is buying before it compares feature lists, and should ask any supplier, including us, where the data sits and who else can read it.
Where our page is thinner than theirs.
OceanMind publishes a 99 per cent accuracy claim for fishing detection insights. Global Fishing Watch publishes its training method and its caveats. We publish outputs and partners, not detection rates, small-vessel coverage or hosting arrangements, and this table marks every one of those cells as not published rather than guessing. Ask us for them in writing.
Questions buyers ask
What is the best alternative to Global Fishing Watch for a government that does not want its fleet activity published?
Global Fishing Watch is deliberately public: anyone with an internet connection can trace over 100,000 fishing vessels by name and flag state. That is the point of it and it is free. If your requirement is enforcement evidence that stays inside your jurisdiction, you need a delivered service rather than an open dataset. Our platform provides IUU analytics and bait-to-plate traceability to the ministry and its enforcement chain, from an independent, non-aligned supplier with UN World Food Programme and European Space Agency backing. OceanMind is the other credible route if your priority is port state measures and inspection planning.
Skylight is free for governments. Why would a fisheries ministry pay for anything else?
Take Skylight. It is genuinely capable, it costs nothing to eligible authorities and NGOs, and it fuses AIS with Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Landsat and night lights to surface dark vessels. Then ask what it does not do. It publishes vessel-behaviour events, not catch traceability, and it is a philanthropically funded programme rather than a contracted supplier with obligations to you. Export markets increasingly want provenance at the landing, which is what our traceability platform covers. Most ministries should run a free monitoring layer and contract the evidence chain separately.
How does your traceability platform compare with OceanMind on cost of ownership?
Neither publishes prices, so any comparison of figures is invented. What is documented is scope. OceanMind sells analysis as a service, with custom risk models against national regulations, a rules engine covering thousands of regulations, inspection plans and PSMA training, and it claims 99 per cent accuracy in fishing detection insights. Our platform covers traceability from bait to plate alongside IUU analytics, with sustainment through one accountable team in region. If you need port state measures capacity tomorrow, OceanMind has the published tool for it. If you need export-grade provenance behind every landing, that is our ground.
Which platform detects small unregistered fishing boats?
None of them detects all of them, and be sceptical of anyone who says otherwise. Global Fishing Watch documents that under 1 per cent of vessels below 12 metres appear in AIS. Skylight adds night lights and optical detection to find vessels not broadcasting AIS, which helps for larger dark vessels and for squid fleets that light up. Our answer is different in kind: monitor the landing and the chain of custody, so the boat that never broadcast still leaves a record when the fish is sold.
Does a satellite fisheries platform give a state sovereignty over its own enforcement data?
Only if the contract says so. None of the three competitor documents cited here states where a customer's data is hosted or who else may access it, and two of the three publish outputs openly as a matter of mission. We supply from an independent, non-aligned source with no political exposure to a major-power ecosystem, and the sustainment sits with one accountable team. Put data residency, access rights and exit terms in the contract with whichever supplier you pick.
Sources
- 1. Global Fishing Watch, Datasets and Code: Apparent Fishing EffortRetrieved: 2026-07-31 · States over 110 million AIS messages received daily, the two convolutional neural network models and their manually labelled training set, the AIS coverage caveats by vessel length, and open access to the map, APIs and R package.
- 2. Skylight (Allen Institute for AI), Skylight Product page: data sources and types of eventsRetrieved: 2026-07-31 · Lists night lights, Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, Landsat 8-9, AIS and commercial imagery as data sources, and the event types night lights, dark rendezvous, fishing, standard rendezvous, entry and speed range, plus AIS volume of 100 million messages a day and an available API.
- 3. Skylight (Allen Institute for AI), Skylight home page: what Skylight does and how the programme worksRetrieved: 2026-07-31 · States the platform is free to government, regional and non-governmental organisations worldwide, that data and analytics are shared through APIs and open-sourced models, and that a public map is available.
- 4. Allen Institute for AI, AI for the environment: SkylightRetrieved: 2026-07-31 · Describes Skylight as Ai2's IUU fishing solution using data from NASA, the European Space Agency and Maxar, with 100 million daily ship-tracking data points.
- 5. OceanMind, Products + Services: Precision RegulationRetrieved: 2026-07-31 · States near real-time monitoring of tens of thousands of vessels, custom risk models tailored to national regulations, multi-year risk assessments and real-time patrol support for coastal, port and flag states.
- 6. OceanMind, PSMART: Port State Measures Analysis Risk ToolRetrieved: 2026-07-31 · States processing of port-entry requests alongside billions of AIS data points, a rules engine covering thousands of regulations, risk reports with inspection plans, PSMA training and a stated 99 per cent accuracy in fishing detection insights.