Opportunities and challenges for improving fisheries management through greater transparency in vessel tracking

When fisheries managers cannot see who is fishing or where fishing occurs, their scope for management interventions is limited. This lack of transparency in spatial fishing activity is considered a key enabler of illegal fishing and overfishing and hinders managers and consumers who aim to achieve sustainable fisheries. Increasing transparency in vessel location tracking is gaining momentum as a promising way to improve management of global fisheries. However, the mechanisms through which transparency in vessel activity can improve management have not been carefully studied. This paper provides a conceptual overview of the potential for greater transparency, both in quantity of vessels tracked and availability of data, from vessel tracking to help achieve sustainable fisheries goals. We identify four pathways through which these data can improve fisheries management and the conditions that enable transparency to be an effective governance tool. We qualitatively examine the costs and benefits of alternative models of transparency, including a hypothetical, fully transparent system. We highlight how potential costs and benefits of greater transparency depend on both governance context and management goals, and identify opportunities for future research to address key information gaps.