SEEING IS BELIEVING

Our space-based technology and its Earth-bound derivatives are helping to tackle some of the biggest problems facing our planet and the people who inhabit it. MDA Space actively strives to conduct all business in a sustainable, equitable and ethical manner, and our business solutions and advanced space technology enable us to participate in multiple environmental and social endeavours. 

Sharing MDA Space data to address illegal fishing 

According to the United Nations, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is the planet’s sixth largest crime, as 20 per cent of the over 90 million tonnes of fish caught globally each year are captured illegally.

MDA Space has provided Global Fishing Watch (GFW) — an international non-governmental organization committed to advancing the sustainability of our oceans through increased transparency — with free access to our RADARSAT-2 satellite radar archive. The RADARSAT-2 archive represents a 15-year historical record of the Earth and includes more than one million Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images covering 26 billion square kilometres of ocean regions. GFW is leveraging the archive to map IUU fishing patterns using science-based analytics that will be used by international policymakers, conservationists and researchers to more effectively fight illegal fishing practices.

“Global Fishing Watch is revealing human activity in the ocean and making it freely available to the world. MDA’s RADARSAT-2 satellite imagery, combined with our AI and datasets, has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the marine environment by shining a light on hidden and suspicious fishing activity. We applaud MDA’s ground-breaking contribution to ocean management and are excited to harness their imagery to help rein in the outlaw ocean and bring greater transparency to what happens at sea.” TONY LONG, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, GLOBAL FISHING WATCH

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