Remote sensing and geographical information systems: Their past, present and future use in global marine fisheries

Historically, the fishing community (e.g., fishermen, resource managers) has used remotely sensed products either in the form of direct Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) reception on a ship or FAX charts transmitted from land-based stations. Both these products have severe limitations within the context of near real-time support/management of an operational fishery. Moreover, relatively little use of geographical information systems (GIS) technologies has been made by either the fishing industry, fishery resource managers, or by the general oceanographic community. This latter omission is unfortunate because GIS has the potential to overcome two long-standing problems associated with satellite-directed fisheries: 1) the absence of information due to clouds; and 2) the general lack of support for nonpelagic fisheries. This report gives the background, motivation, and essential design elements for use of a combined remote sensing/geographical information system (RS/GIS) in an operational fishery and illustrates how a combined RS/GIS approach can be used to mitigate some of the traditional limitations in satellite-directed fisheries. Finally, an attempt is made to provide some possible directions this new technology may take during the 1990s.