The board of trustees at Oslo, Norway-based nonprofit Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT), which provides fisheries authorities and relevant international organizations with fisheries intelligence, analysis, and capacity-building services, recently announced the appointment of Gareth Johnstone as its new executive director, effective 1 July 2024.
Before securing his new role, Johnstone was the director general at another nonprofit, WorldFish, where he shaped a global agenda on aquatic food systems. Johnstone also served as an observer on the United Nations FAO Committee of Fisheries, as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Steering Committee on 2030 Sustainable Aquaculture, and as a scientific adviser and contributor to the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.
With TMT, Johnstone aims to focus on boosting partnerships and collaboration, consolidating growth, supporting organizational development, and strengthening the impacts of TMT’s work on ocean communities, ecosystems, and economies.
Johnstone discussed the direction in which he wants to take TMT, as well as the organization’s fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, in a recent interview with SeafoodSource.
SeafoodSource: What attracted you to the organization and the job in particular?
Johnstone: TMT is a very focused organization, working at the “pointy end” of fishery compliance supporting national fishing authorities and international organizations with fisheries intelligence data, analysis, and providing training to countries and regions where illegal fishing is prolific.
This takes me back to an earlier time in Africa when I worked in the fisheries departments of Mozambique and Sudan, supporting monitoring, control, and surveillance [MCS] operations, as well as running air, land, and sea surveillance, port inspections, regional patrols, strengthening fishery laws, and building information and data management systems. It was not just talk; the work had direct impact and led to the arrest of several IUU fishing vessels and went a long way toward the development of intelligence-led MCS systems.
I came to TMT recognizing its history and wanting to respect its future. I want TMT to continue to play a key role in tackling illegal fishing and associated crimes. Taking on the leadership of an organization like TMT is a bit like having children. You don't have them; you borrow them. You support them to grow, develop, mature, and then pass them on to their next phase in life. So it is with TMT that I see my role as a steward of a highly talented diverse team doing amazing work in an area of fisheries intelligence, helping TMT to grow sustainably and continue to be relevant and impactful against IUU fishing.
SeafoodSource: What are some new priorities for the organizations?
Johnstone: We have a new strategy coming out later in the year that takes a holistic perspective to combating IUU fishing, [making sure] countries make the connection between illegal fishing and the threats to ocean ecosystems, food and nutrition security, ocean governance, an inclusive blue economy, and a climate-resilient future.
Our priorities going forward are to remain agile and nimble so we can respond to country needs. We want to go deeper in the analyses of vessel movements, identity, ownership, and if a vessel is involved in violations of fisheries law or broader crimes.
We've got data on fishing vessels from all around the world and hold the world’s largest active repository of data and analysis on industrial fishing and related vessels. Called the Fishery Analytical Capacity Tool (FACT), the data the tool holds includes identities, compliance histories, and relationships to companies and was built with the express purpose of capturing and analyzing the characteristics of the global fishing fleet. We also maintain the Combined IUU Vessel List website, which provides an up-to-date record of all currently recognized IUU vessels from regional fishery management organizations.
A vessel moves like a fish across the ocean and across transnational boundaries, so we should be able to communicate and share data between multiple countries and regions. We are working in Ghana to build up a regional MCS center which includes capacity-building for a number of countries to work together on issues like transparency and information sharing. The center is managed by the Fishery Committee of West Africa and Gulf of Guinea, based in Ghana, that brings six countries together – Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire – and represents almost 1 million square kilometers of coastal waters in their combined exclusive economic zones.
Going forward, we will continue our role in global data collecting and sharing, but we will also bring a focus on the regional aspects of that work, particularly in Africa where we've got a long legacy and trust is still very important to success.
SeafoodSource: How are you trying to establish a more holistic approach to addressing IUU than just relying on technology?
Johnstone: The advances in technology and the data these produce since I started working on MCS 20 years ago are amazing. We didn't have the technology we do now, as vessel monitoring systems were just coming in. With the technology we have now, we can start to understand and see patterns in vessel behavior that is helping us with what I would say are earlier and easier wins.
However, the advances in IUU technology and the work of analytical NGOs like TMT are moving very fast – faster than the policy and lawmakers can keep up with. This is creating some tensions and the blurring of lines between IUU laws and the rapidly emerging technologies used to enforce these laws, as well as a fear that IUU technologies are driving policies and lawmaking.
One of the key challenges is where data is needed. Globally, there are often a host of infrastructure issues – like internet not working – that makes it difficult for countries to use the data.
Technology also doesn’t address many of the challenges with face-to-face inspections. There are protocols to follow – talk to the skipper, mark down the vessel location, perform the inspection, and be aware of new laws and binding agreements.
These technologies are enhancing our capacity, but it doesn't replace the human capacity for inspection and, in some respects, for interpreting what is happening. TMT has a very dynamic database of information and historical data, and it's very smart at connecting pieces of data about a vessel, a fleet, an owner of a vessel, or even a beneficiary owner, which may not even be anywhere near the vessel. It's the human element within TMT – the analysts who are able to interpret that information – that makes it effective, and then TMT creates the messaging and communication with these regional centers or with nation states.
So, the technology is great, and this is an amazing innovative period at the moment with some great handheld apps. But, it requires the input of data we have collected, and beyond that, once we learn of a problem, people still need to ensure the application of the law is still the application of the law.
This requires political will, and it requires there to be a proper legal process and evidence. The human element with fishers and communities is also essential to provide information on IUU fishing – not only their engagement but the building up of trust with communities to confirm or understand what the technology is telling us.
SeafoodSource: Does this regional approach help reduce costs for countries while increasing access to regional information?
Johnstone: It does exactly that. It helps countries work together by sharing information and resources. It can help build a regional register of vessels so that regions have their own licensing lists and more countries are sharing those license lists.
It also creates a certain level of professionalization for that region; you can start looking at harmonizing licensing agreements which can have benefits for nations and responsible fishers. It is not just licensing that improves with professionalization; it’s also proper jobs, proper labor laws on vessels, and safety for workers participating in one of the most dangerous activities on Earth.
