How satellites and AI are transforming ocean law enforcement

As a historic new treaty to conserve sea life comes into force, how will the world’s most remote oceans be policed and protected?

On the high seas, you used to be able to get away with murder. Authorities were hampered by what they couldn’t see beyond the horizon – at night, miles from land, and in international waters. Fishing ships leak oil, fish where they shouldn’t, use banned equipment, launder their catch or use forced labour.

Today, technology has made crime harder to hide. From space, thousands of satellites look down in all manner of ways. Optical images can reveal individual ships, infrared satellites spot heat signatures and synthetic aperture radar can penetrate cloud cover. You can see a pod of whales from space, the lights of night-time squid fishing, and even the damage done to the ocean floor by bottom trawling. Some satellites pick up radio signals from mobiles or navigational radar, some containing GPS positions. You can see if a ship is actively fishing, just passing through, carrying cargo or loitering suspiciously.

Read the story here:

https://eandt.theiet.org/2026/01/08/technology-and-enforcement-key-protecting-oceans