TMT provides national fisheries authorities and international organisations with expert fisheries intelligence and analysis, in support of enforcement actions and broader improvements in fisheries governance. TMT’s areas of expertise, ranging from vessel tracking to company analysis, contributes to investigating organized illegal fishing and associated corruption, document and vessel identity fraud, fish laundering, labour abuse and other violations of relevant laws. By supporting regional cooperation between countries, and inter-agency cooperation within countries, TMT helps to improve information sharing and cooperation to tackle fisheries crime. Communication platforms are supported for easy and secure information sharing between countries, and training is provided to fisheries enforcement authorities to build their capacity and systems to collect relevant intelligence, conduct risk assessments, plan and execute enforcement actions, and prosecute fisheries violations.

TMT has developed a number of bespoke tools that are used to support partner countries to improve MCS capabilities and broader fisheries governance. These include FACT – Fisheries Analytical Capacity Tool – a fisheries intelligence management and analytical system built with the express purpose of capturing and analysing the identities, operations and risk profiles of the global fishing fleet and the companies that operate it, and custom analysis of vessel tracking data. TMT also uses data products from other organizations to contribute to its analyses and is involved in the development of several systems.

Through its partnerships, TMT endeavours to develop and support emerging technological tools that can be effectively used by fisheries authorities while keeping costs low. Currently, a mobile application for port inspectors is under development in collaboration with Global Fishing Watch, to support risk assessments around vessel arrivals (PSMA Programme). Cooperation with other platforms such as Vulcan Skylight is also ongoing with the aim to assist country users in partner African countries around specific operations (e.g. live fisheries patrol support). Recently, TMT contributed to the testing of low-cost intelligent drones to support maritime surveillance (FishGuard).

In this project, TMT will lead capacity building efforts targeted at fisheries enforcement and related agencies, both in the context of FMC (Fisheries Monitoring Centre) operations and port inspections. TMT will also work on the establishment and strengthening of inter-agency cooperation, information sharing and relevant processes aimed at integrating risk assessments into the planning of MCS, and leading to broader improvements in fisheries governance. To this end, the use of tools already available in Guinea will be supported, and new tools, technologies and methods will be introduced.