GPS satellites are now being used to track tuna and sharks to hunt and kill them, instead of tracking them for scientific data and conservation. Rob knew GPS technology could be used to help save sharks, but now a company called Iridium Satellite UK is using GPS technology to help fishing vessels find at-risk tuna, killing sharks, whales and turtles, bolstering the overfishing crisis that is wiping out these important species.
More than 100 marine groups, UK celebrities, international lawmakers, scientists, conservationists, and individuals are calling on Iridium Satellite UK to stop their real-time GPS reporting and tracking of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) that use Iridium’s Short Burst Data services. This coalition - led by Shark Guardian UK - urges Iridum to stop this small portion of their communications operations in order to save vital ocean species and ecosystems.
Fishing vessels are using Iridium’s low-earth orbit satellite network to find the location of FADs. FADs are objects placed in the ocean to attract fish. Fish are naturally attracted to objects floating in the water, like logs or seaweed, which can be replicated by humans to gather large numbers of fish in one area to harvest them. FADs pose a lot of danger to ocean animals who are killed there by fishers, or may become entangled in the devices. Now, Iridium’s satellite communication technology is being used to ‘ping’ these devices so industrial-scale fishing vessels can locate schools of fish more easily in order to harvest more fish than ever before, resulting in more bycatch of sharks, whales, and turtles, contributing to the overfishing crisis that is destroying vital ocean ecosystems.
Rob Stewart hoped FADs would help fish species to recover more quickly, as many would gather in one area and therefore be able to mate and reproduce at increased rates. Unfortunately, this technology is being used for more destructive ends. Iridium itself runs an Outlaw Ocean Project to detect wrongdoing in fisheries, which conservationists applaud. The company’s website also reads, “Environmental sustainability at Iridium means conducting our business in a manner that acknowledges, measures, and takes responsibility for our direct and indirect impacts on the environment.” These sentiments are appreciated but, if not backed up by actual action to save at-risk species, are meaningless.
The coalition also believes that the UK government “should step in to regulate Iridium's unsustainable actions which are causing endangered species like sharks, whales, and turtles to be wiped out on an unimaginable scale by greedy industrial fisheries that rely on Iridium's GPS data.”
Martyn Day, Scottish National Party MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk, said: "Iridium has been found to be acting irresponsibly and of being an enabler of unsustainable overfishing and dirty plastics pollution in the Indian Ocean, despite the high-minded environmental claims on its website.”
For many years it has been of concern to ocean conservation groups that industrial Spanish and French tuna fishing vessels are actively plundering the Indian Ocean for tuna that can be found on your supermarket shelves, killing endangered and at-risk species of fish, whales, tuna, turtles, and sharks in the process. Iridium is now considered complicit in these species’ march towards extinction, unless they cease the small part of their operations that these vessels use to target fish.
In a letter to the coalition that urged the UK branch of the company to stop their harmful practices, Iridium said that it worked to ensure its services were only used for legal purposes but the Indian Ocean fishing did not “fall into that category,” but conservationists disagree. The coalition states, “We have reason to believe that this area of your business operations, which unfortunately generates a great deal of plastic waste and hazardous electronic waste pollution, must generate only a very small and insignificant fraction of your overall revenue for the entire company.”
Chris Packham, Wildlife TV Presenter, Conservationist and Campaigner, said “…Iridium doesn’t need this, the oceans don’t need this, and tuna, sharks, dolphins and turtles don’t need it either." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Broadcaster and Campaigner, said “Iridium's electronic devices should not be in the ocean in the first place as they are contributing to toxic electronic waste and plastics pollution which devastates thousands of miles of coral reefs, seagrass meadows and beaches along the Indian Ocean coastline.”
It is clear to us that this small part of Iridium’s business is not crucial to their profit margins, but stopping its use by fishing vessels is crucial to the survival of many species of fish, including at-risk sharks and tuna, as well as whales, turtles, and the environment as a whole.
As a result of the campaign organized by Shark Guardian, Iridium has agreed to meet the coalition. Join us to continue the push to stop Iridium providing tracking that’s wiping out sharks, whales, turtles, and tuna! ~Selina Barker
