Monitoring of illegal fishing activities in the waters of Seychelles will soon be conducted by drones as the island nation embarks on a trial project.
The Seychelles Fishing Authority will be the coordinator of the project — called FishGuard — which will be integrated into the fisheries patrol routines of the Seychelles Air Force and the Seychelles Coast Guard.
“SFA is a leading partner in this project and eagerly looking forward to its implementation in view of the potential to significantly improve how the authority combats illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities, especially in the northern part of our EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone),” said Ronny Renaud, the authority’s chief executive.
Surveillance of large marine areas will be done using a combination of the short and long-range drone equipped with artificial intelligence.
A drone is an unmanned aircraft that may be remotely controlled or can fly autonomously through software-controlled flight plans by working in conjunction with onboard sensors and GPS.