Question Period Note: Dark Vessel Detection Project

Dark Vessel Detection Project

Our government recognizes the global challenge of illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, commonly referred to as IUU fishing, and its devastating impacts on ecosystems and economies around the world.

As part of the G7 Charlevoix Blueprint for Healthy Oceans, Canada committed $7M to fund a platform using new satellite technologies to detect and track ‘dark vessels’, or vessels which disable tracking devices. This platform supports developing countries in building capacity to detect and respond to IUU fishing.

Canada has successfully deployed the system to regions in the South Pacific Islands, as well as Ecuador, supporting counter IUU patrols and the monitoring of the Galapagos Islands.

• IUU fishing is estimated to account for up to 30 per cent of fish landings worldwide and remove as much as $30 billion from the world’s economy annually. It is increasingly linked to crimes of convergence such as drug trafficking and human slavery.
• The Government of Canada has significant investments in satellite technology including the Radarsat Constellation Mission. This system will leverage these investments to support a critical need for real time monitoring of fisheries on the high seas and inside economic zones of developing states.
• The Dark Vessel Detection (DVD) project is a partnership between DND and DFO. The contract was awarded to MDA (MacDonald Dettwiler Associates), a Canadian based space systems company.
• This project is focused on developing states as a critical front-line in the fight against IUU. Domestically, Canada has a robust surveillance system including Fishery Officer patrols at sea and aerial, fish monitoring centers, dockside monitoring and at sea observer programs, and the multi-departmental Marine Security Operations Centres.

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