Global Fishing Watch's new AI models strip false fishing detections from its record back to 2012

Global Fishing Watch released version 5 of its data pipeline on Oct. 21, with a new general fishing model, trained on more than 1,000 expert-reviewed examples of fishing, and a new vessel classification model, both reprocessed over its vessel-tracking data back to 2012 and live on its public map, APIs and downloads, the nonprofit said. The fishing model removes large numbers of false positives from vessels in port, at anchor or in transit, and aggregate AIS fishing hours fell 3.55 percent for vessels classified as fishing in both versions, with the gap at 7.1 percent for 2025 and 6.7 percent for 2026 to date, per GFW’s release notes, which say the new model also misses some fishing for certain gear types. GFW will publish the old and new datasets side by side for a limited time and recommends using its data with official registries and other sources before reaching legal conclusions.