Tracking industrial fishing activities in African waters from space

Abstract Marine fisheries in African waters contribute substantially to food security and local economies in African coastal nations. Recently, there are growing concerns about the sustainability of living marine resources in these countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) due to increased risks from climate change, pollution and potential over‐exploitation of fisheries resources by non‐African (foreign) countries. To effectively manage fishing activities and sustain marine resources in African waters, we need useful tools for characterizing the fishing activities in African waters. Here, we assess the utility of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) derived data for describing the spatial characteristics of African and foreign industrial fishing activities within the EEZs of African coastal nations. The results show that the AIS‐derived spatial pattern of industrial fishing activities in African waters is consistent with that of industrial catches derived from the Sea Around Us database. Across African EEZs, the spatial correlations between primary productivity and fishing effort highly vary by gear types, which emphasizes the importance of investigating specific fishing strategies when studying the effects of bottom‐up drivers on fishing effort. We find an EEZ‐specific spatial pattern for fishing efforts across African waters and identify some socioeconomic, political and geographic factors that likely affect the decision of fleets to fish in specific African EEZs. We conclude that AIS‐derived fishing data can be a useful complementary tool for characterizing the spatial pattern of industrial fishing efforts in African waters.