Satellite observation of heavily lit fishing boat activity in the coral triangle region

The Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) is a new international effort to preserve and restore the magnificent marine ecosystems in the Southeast Asia region spanning the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea. The CTI workplan calls for the use of multiple data sources in the conduct of a "rapid seascape assessment" leading to the designation of additional "priority seascapes" for preservation and sustainable management of the regions marine ecosystems. Human activities such as fishing, urban pollution, and sedimentation from poor land use practices are rated as key factors contributing to the degradation of seascapes. As a contribution to the data sources for use in the rapid seascape assessment NGDC has produced a time series of heavily lit fishing boat detections derived from low light imaging data collected by the Operational Linescan System (OLS) flown by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). Most of the DMSP observed lights are on land (cities and towns). But in some cases lighting is observed offshore where fishermen are using bright lights to attract their catch. The DMSP archive extends from 1992 to the present. Annual cloud-free composites were produced at approximately one kilometer resolution and are accessible from NGDC's web site. We report on the spatial and temporal variation in the detected fishing boat activity in the coral triangle region.