Fish Stock Assessment

Download Product Sheet

Product Category

• Land use
• Land cover
• Natural Disaster
• Climate Change
• Coast Management 

• Marine
• Earth's Surface Motion

Financial Domains

• Investment management 
• Risk Analysis 
• Insurance management 
• Green finance

User requirements 

UN9: Understanding stock levels and monitoring supply chains

Description

The EO data can be employed to estimate fish stocks by analysing ocean conditions, temperature, and chlorophyll concentrations, helping in making informed decisions on fishing quotas and seasons. Data on water surface temperature, which exhibits a strong correlation with the presence of certain fish species, and ocean colour, characterized by distinct spectral signatures indicating chlorophyll pigments' concentration linked to phytoplankton biomass (the main food source in the sea), can assist in selecting optimal fishing locations. The combination of two fundamental factors—knowing the marine environment and knowing where fishing takes place—can be powerful: leading to more productive, better-managed, and more sustainable fisheries. Financial planners and investors can use this information to identify regions with the potential for profitable fishing operations.

Spatial Coverage Target

Seas and Oceans

Data Throughput

Rapid tasking 

Data availability

• High
• High

• Low
• Low

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS

Main processing steps

Remote sensing data from Sentinel-3 like Sea surface temperature and ocean/sea reflectance can be used to generate easy-to-read maps. These maps can be delivered to fishing companies to have a good idea about the most susceptible regions of fish stocks. As water surface temperature exhibits a strong correlation with the presence of certain fish species, and ocean colour, characterized by distinct spectral signatures indicating chlorophyll pigments' concentration linked to phytoplankton biomass (the main food source in the sea).

Input data sources

Optical: Sentinel-3

Radar: N.A

Satellite-based products: Sea surface temperature of Sentinel-3

Accessibility

Sentinel-3:  freely and publicly available from ESA.

Spatial resolution

Frequency (Temporal resolution)

Sentinel-3: 1-2 days

Latency

Sentinel-3: ≤ Day

Geographical scale coverage

Globally

Delivery/ output format

Data type: Raster

File format: GeoTIFF

Accuracies

Thematic accuracy: NA

Spatial accuracy: NA

Constraints and limitations

n Cloud presence

n Sentinel-3 data primarily focus on the sea surface, which may not provide information about fish species that inhabit deeper waters.

n The data may not distinguish between mixed species

User's level of knowledge and skills to extract information and perform further analysis on the EO products.

Skills: Ample

Knowledge: Essential

P32: Fish stock assessment

Download product sheet gap analysis

Maturity score

Mean: 2.00

STD: 0.00

Constraints and limitations

·   Cloud presence

·   It is more an assessment of the probability of finding some fish than a stock assessment.

·   EO data primarily focuses on the sea surface, which may not provide information about fish species that inhabit deeper waters.

·   The data may not distinguish between mixed species.

Relevant user needs

UN9: Understanding stock levels and monitoring supply chains

R&D gaps

·   Lack of training datasets as companies will not share the information of fish stock’s locations due to its commercial sensitivity.

Potential improvements drivers

·  Privacy Enhancement Technologies can help to overcome the barriers, to training better models.

Utilisation level review

Utilisation score

Mean: 1.4

STD: 0.49

No utilisation

·  Unavailability of freely available sources of the EO product.

·  Unacceptable reliability and accuracy of the EO product.

·  Unawareness of the existence of this EO product.

·  Understand fishing locations have not been pointed out as interest in the finance sector.

Low utilisation

Medium utilisation

High utilisation

Critical gaps related to relevant user needs

 Guideline gap

UN39: Need to assess the potential impact of business activities or investments on ecosystems and biodiversity.