MDA Awarded Government Of Canada Contract To Help In The Fight Against Illegal Fishing

 June 29, 2023

MDA Ltd.  announced a two-year contract with up to three optional years with the Government of Canada through the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to help counter illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing in the Indo-Pacific region.

According to the United Nations, illegal fishing is the planet's sixth largest crime. The Indo-Pacific region is home to the majority of the world's coral reefs and includes the largest diversity of fish. MDA Maritime Insights platform, which leverages MDA's world-renowned RADARSAT-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), combines multiple satellite data sources to track and identify IUU fishing activity including dark vessel detection. Together, they can see hundreds of kilometres in a single image, day or night and through all weather conditions, creating a powerful asset for combatting IUU fishing.  

"Our ocean surfaces are enormous and incredibly hard to monitor, giving those who seek to perpetrate crime on the water confidence that they will be undetected," said Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA. "Space-based Earth observation gives us a valuable vantage point to see what we can't on the ground or from the water to help break that cycle. We are proud to support the Government of Canada and other nations with MDA data and insights to help combat the illegal activity that is putting our ocean ecosystems at risk."

MDA is an active participant in the fight against IUU fishing, providing near real-time monitoring, data and insight of fishing activity to nations through the Government of Canada. It works with DFO and international fisheries agencies to provide actionable maritime intelligence data that addresses dark vessel detection and supports maritime enforcement initiatives. The Government of Canada has been using MDA technology in support of the Government of Ecuador to monitor the protected ocean ecosystems surrounding the Galapagos Islands since 2021.

"Detecting, tracking and intercepting vessels engaged in IUU fishing will help protect the world's ocean ecosystems and the livelihoods of law-abiding fish harvesters worldwide and here in Canada. This will support the protection of biodiversity throughout the Indo-Pacific region from threats of IUU fishing," said the Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.