Belize’s Commitment to Fighting Illegal Fishing with Big Data

Janelle Chanona

Oceana Belize’s Vice President Janelle Chanona spoke to Belize’s commitment to transparency by making data on fisheries activity available.

Janelle Chanona, V.P., Oceana Belize

“More than the words, this is one of the ways that Belize, by its actions, is showing commitment to transparency and the fact that, you know, I think for a very long time that this has been a kind of out of sight, out of mind part of our fishing activity and we share blips.  And now, especially with recent conversations about EEZs and high seas, you know, that interest is there and that gets the entire team so excited because the more interest there is, there more awareness there is about everything that we‘re doing at sea fuels that interest for information and this is such an amazing platform and I am almost old enough to have been there right at the beginning when Oceana, Sky Troop and this company you may have heard of, Google, came together and said, you know, we want to produce big data that‘s free so that anyone out there can be behind their devices accessing and creating reports and helping to be part of the team looking at IUU.  Because as Anna called out, really, it‘s so detrimental on so many levels and especially those of you in the media but more so those of you involved.  The organizations in enforcement, you know from your stories on the ground just how much illegal activity undermines your most dedicated efforts.”