Oxfordshire, UK — 11 June 2025 — OceanMind, the impact organisation providing independent data intelligence to help protect the world’s ocean, today announces the launch of ZEROinFIVE, an initiative to stop all illegal seafood imports within five years by blocking illegally caught fish at ports.

Globally, an estimated 1 in 5 fish (20%) are caught illegally. In some countries, that number can reach as high as 50%. Such illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is devastating marine ecosystems and harming honest fishers.

The Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) — a UN FAO international treaty established in 2009 — gives governments the legal right to block illegally caught fish from entering markets, stopping it before it lands in port. If properly implemented by all signatories, the PSMA would essentially make illegal fish unsellable, meaning catch cannot be converted to cash.

However, most countries lack the resources, tools, data, and training to implement PSMA effectively. Today, only a handful of countries out of 80 signatories have an effective PSMA implementation that verifies the origin of every imported catch.

Empowering governments and port authorities with stronger PSMA implementation support and capacity building

Crossing the bridge between PSMA’s potential and authorities’ capacity to enforce it is where OceanMind’s ZEROinFIVE initiative comes in.

“The challenge is monumental,” said Nick Wise, CEO, OceanMind. “But so is the opportunity. We have the legal framework and the technology — what we need now is coordinated action. Through ZEROinFIVE, we can equip nations with the tools and training to turn the PSMA from paper into practice, cutting off the pathways that allow illegal catch to reach consumers worldwide."

OceanMind’s planetary-scale technology, co-designed with Microsoft over the past 10 years, combines satellite surveillance with AI-powered risk assessments to streamline inspection planning, in-port investigation, and port use decision-making anywhere.

Harnessing these advanced technologies, OceanMind helps countries make confident, data-driven decisions to:

1. Verify vessel histories,
2. Detect IUU activities, and
3. Deny access to port services.  

OceanMind’s capacity building programme begins with full support for PSMA risk assessments and inspection planning, followed by a complete handover and independent operation by the host country over a 12- to 24-month period.

Proven success in Thailand — and replicating the approach

Between 2015 and 2020, OceanMind supported Thailand authorities in a complete reform of its fisheries enforcement capability, including comprehensive PSMA implementation:

• Developing an AI-powered risk assessment tool to help port officials verify the behaviour of any vessel requesting port access to import seafood, and
• Launching a capacity building programme to train officials in pre-entry risk assessment, inspection planning, and import authorisation decision making.

Following that success, OceanMind has also today announced at the third United Nations Ocean Conference a commitment to deliver this programme of capacity building in the Philippines and Cambodia, with the support of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada. Our newly launched ZEROinFIVE initiative aims to replicate and scale this approach globally.

OceanMind is ready to deploy this programme to all 80 signatories of the PSMA, closing every major port in the world to imported IUU fish. This would significantly reduce IUU fishing and the associated damage to the environment globally.

"We've proven this approach works in the regions where we've partnered with authorities," said Nick Wise. "Now we need philanthropic partners, collaborating governments, and participating authorities to help us rapidly scale. With expanded support, we can achieve what once seemed impossible: zero illegal seafood imports within five years. The ocean can't wait — but together, we don't have to."

Learn more about ZEROinFIVE, and talk to our team about how to support this work.

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ABOUT OCEANMIND
OceanMind is a modern breed of impact organization that’s equal parts mission-centric nonprofit NGO and tech-enabled data and analytics provider. It provides independent data intelligence to help protect the world’s ocean and support the nations, companies, people, and economies that depend on it.

Learn more here: https://oceanmind.global/

MEDIA CONTACT
Nikki Arnone, Inflection Point Agency for OceanMind nikki@inflectionpointagency.com

Environments globally and the economies that depend on them are changing rapidly — and insurance is often on the front lines of those changes. Coastal homes are becoming uninsurable in the face of more-frequent and more-severe hurricanes, typhoons, and other storms. In wildfire-prone regions such as California, some insurers have stopped renewing or issuing new fire policies. When it comes to the maritime sector, the insurance market is the proverbial tip of the spear for the businesses that comprise the global ocean economy.

With industrial fishing activities impacting more than half of the ocean and shipping transporting almost 90% of everything we make, buy, and sell, it’s no wonder that:

• 87% of marine ecosystems are now impacted by human activity
• 80% of all fish biomass has been lost over the past 100 years
• Thousands of marine species are at risk of extinction this century 

As sea life populations decline and marine ecosystems deteriorate, businesses across the maritime industry will see operational costs rise. To help them get ahead of the issue, new non-financial disclosure regulations aim to bring these previously hidden risks to light, so companies can address sustainability challenges before they become business liabilities.

Since most maritime supply chain operations are insured, the insurance sector holds significant leverage to help drive change while mitigating its own exposure to rising risks. Traditionally, insurers have relied on historical data to assess risk and set policy prices. But in a world where environmental conditions are shifting rapidly, past data is no longer a good predictor of future threats. A once-in-two-hundred-year catastrophe might now be just once-in-twenty. 

To address this challenge, OceanMind has partnered with Concirrus AI to deliver detailed, comprehensive marine sustainability risk insights — beginning with emissions. This collaboration equips insurers with the tools they need to assess, price, and manage environmental risks more effectively in today's rapidly changing landscape.

Real-time data for better risk assessment

More than ever, insurers and reinsurers need current assessments that reflect today’s changing risk landscape — just as law enforcement needs current assessments of actual risk behaviour to enforce the law. By integrating real-time risk insights into cost and loss calculations, underwriters and actuaries can price premiums based on actual behavior rather than outdated historical trends. 

This approach not only enables insurers to more accurately assess risk; it also encourages maritime operators to adopt safer practices in order to reduce premiums. As operators reduce high-risk behaviors, the overall impact on ocean health diminishes — and insurers benefit from fewer claims and lower costs related to environmental damage.

The key to maximizing this mutual benefit lies in creating stronger connections between compliance requirements and financial drivers.

Reinforcing compliance through financial accountability

Most of the damaging human activity on the ocean is already regulated. The damage persists where it is not effectively enforced. At OceanMind, we’ve been collaborating with regulatory agencies to provide the technology and support necessary to enhance compliance and protect marine environments. Our efforts have proven successful in the regions we’ve partnered with, but we know that enforcement alone is not enough.

Building on our established work in marine law enforcement support — where our advanced technology has been used to detect and prevent illegal fishing, monitor maritime emissions, and reduce harmful practices — we saw an opportunity to go even further. By extending our capabilities to support the insurance sector with data that helps mitigate risks before they escalate, we can create additional financial incentives that complement direct regulatory approaches.

As the landscape shifts, emerging financial regulations like the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and its Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence now provide insurers with a unique opportunity to directly address the source of much of the ocean’s damage: business supply chains. 

By integrating sustainability data into insurance processes, companies are held to higher standards, promoting compliance and reducing the overall impact on the environment. This new regulatory approach aligns with the shift toward proactive risk management and provides a direct way for insurers to drive real, measurable change.

Expanding impact beyond insurance

Looking further ahead, the same insights can support broader financial services, allowing current risk behaviour to influence investment decisions and repayment terms. The greater the risk to future operations from unsustainable behaviour, the greater the cost of finance. And of course, the same risk insights can be used to help comply with corporate disclosure regulations.

OceanMind's real-time risk insights into maritime activities reveal the likelihood of damaging impacts to people and planet, empowering a new generation of risk managers to reduce operating costs while supporting sustainable and responsible business practices for years to come.

To learn more about OceanMind’s work and data, please get in touch today.

Period of Remembrance prompts call for resolution to retrieve looted Second World War anchor and proper burial for sailors lost in worst disaster in British naval history.

• Period of Remembrance prompts a timely reminder of sacrifice made by sailors lost at sea and to find a permanent home for the anchor indiscriminately looted from Second World War shipwreck and military designated grave HMS Prince of Wales. 
• The vital surveillance work carried out by the Maritime Observatory through satellite technology that alerted the heritage world to the desecration of the wrecks last year is marked by the launch of a short video.
• Ongoing discussions with HM Government hope for a positive resolution with oversea authorities.

As the nation enters a period of Remembrance, commemorating and honouring the service and sacrifice of the Armed Forces, leading voices in the maritime archaeology world have issued a timely reminder to find a permanent home for the anchor looted from the Second World War Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales off the Malaysian coast last year and for a fitting burial of human remains from both the Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse which are currently in a Malaysian scrapyard.

Commonly cited as one of the worst disasters in British naval history, the attack and sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse on 10th December 1941 by aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy sent shockwaves through the country.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously recalled in his post-war memoirs:
“In all the war, I never received a more direct shock.” at the news that 842 men had lost their lives.

The desecration of both wrecks 60 miles east off the Malaysian coast by a Chinese purpose-built salvage barge, the Chuan Hong 68, was tracked and recorded early in 2023 by the Maritime Observatory, a non-profit partnership between the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (MAST) and OceanMind which harnesses the growing capabilities of the commercial satellite sector to protect shipwrecks and other underwater heritage at sea.

In a short video, released today, the essential role the Maritime Observatory played in alerting the world to the desecration of the Royal Navy wreck sites is highlighted.

Major General Patrick Cordingley DSO OBE DSc FRGS former Commander of the Desert Rats in the First Gulf War and Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (MAST) trustee, explains:

“MAST, working for the Ministry of Defence, Royal Navy and the Survivors’ Association of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, is doing all it can to make certain that the human remains from the two ships receive a fitting resting place in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery. Also, MAST is determined to see an anchor from HMS Prince of Wales is brought back to this country as a fitting memorial to those who died when the two ships were sunk in December 1941.”

The fate of the wrecks of both warships has been discussed for almost five decades and highlights the complexity of monitoring and protecting Royal Navy wreck sites across the globe. 

Giles Richardson, Senior Archaeologist, MAST explains:

“Some of our findings are astonishing. Over a six-month period, looters repeatedly targeted the wreck of HMS Prince of Wales in the South China Sea and released a 10km oil slick into the environment. Now almost nothing is left of the wreck.”  

As part of a team undertaking the 2001 UNESCO Convention Impact Review for the United Kingdom, MAST has recently both funded and undertaken a major assessment of the international spread of UK sovereign wrecks.

This assessment, which has been called the Royal Navy Loss List shows that there are over 5,000 Royal Naval wrecks scattered across the oceans of the world, covering the period between 1512 and 2004.

98% of the world’s oceans are managed by regulations designed to protect their ecosystems; enforcing these regulations is the key to preserving ocean health for all our futures.

By Nick Wise.

The Ocean is the Earth’s Life Support System

The ocean is home to some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth and our survival depends on their ability to thrive. The ocean is also wild, vast, and remote, making protecting those species a challenge for humans to undertake alone.

One of the ways we can ensure the long-term conservation and protection of the ocean is to establish marine protected areas, but the solution may not be just in the creation of new reserves. It can also be found in enforcing the regulations that already exist.

Marine protected areas are clearly defined geographical areas designed to limit human activity on the ocean to enable preservation of the marine environment for several reasons, including safeguarding biodiversity, species protection, and the protection of economic resources. There are almost 15,000 Marine Protected Areas around the world, with 72% of the global protected area consisting of just 36 large protected areas. Many small island nations are tasked with enforcing regulations across vast marine protected areas with limited human capacity and financial resources. This is where satellite-enabled remote sensing can support the protection of these vast ecosystems.

At any one time there are many thousands of satellites in orbit around the Earth that provide us with information about our environment, including human activity on the oceans that goes beyond our visual line of sight.

Vessel monitoring systems and automatic identification systems transmit signals through a vessel’s onboard transceiver that are received by satellites. This data can be used to identify vessels and map their course, position, and speed, enabling enforcement authorities and expert analysts to build a picture of the vessel’s suspected activities and take appropriate action such as further investigation.

However, these systems cannot be solely relied upon to identify all instances of potentially destructive human activity at sea. These systems can be tampered with, so they transmit false identification or location information, or even switched off completely turning a vessel ‘dark’. Synthetic Aperture Radar and Electro-Optical satellites create images of vessels at sea that can be correlated against vessel tracking data. If a vessel appears on an image but there is no corresponding AIS or VMS tracking data at that time, it is a likely indicator of a ‘dark vessel’ which may be operating illegally or carrying out unreported or unregulated activity. Intelligence about this vessel’s potential activities can be sent to the authorities who are then empowered to investigate further.

Collecting and processing remote sensing data over millions of square kilometres of ocean to enable the protection of large scale marine protected areas is an impossible task for humans to undertake alone. With support from cloud computing artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, OceanMind can collate large amounts of data to accurately detect activities that might require further investigation by enforcement authorities within a matter of hours.

Investigation of suspected activity cannot happen without the support of expert analysts who have been trained to look for the patterns identified by the machine learning algorithms and produce risk assessments to help the authorities focus their efforts and resources.

Many of the UK Overseas Territories that are responsible for protecting the UK Blue Belt may only have a single patrol vessel available to them to carry out enforcement across these large protected areas. OceanMind’s expert analysts can both help to identify the biggest risks in terms of vessel activity and efficiently direct patrol assets, as well as continuing to monitor ongoing activity by other vessels across the marine protected area while the patrol vessel is investigating.

The OceanMind solution makes the invisible, visible, and the unknown, known.

To ensure that the systems in place are effective and sustainable for the long-term protection of marine protected areas, capacity development and training are an integral part of the support that is needed to ensure effective enforcement and compliance with marine protection regulations.

It is vitally important that any system or analysis method adopted by enforcement authorities is tailored to meet the individual needs and requirements for protecting the identified area. Every marine protected area around the world has different rules regarding the management and protection of the habitat and species that reside or transit through that area. This adds an additional layer of complexity that requires both expert and local knowledge to interpret and develop strategies for preventing potential IUU fishing or environmental pollution incidents.

Combining satellite-enabled technology with big data processing, expert analysis and capacity development is the key to enforcing the marine protection regulations that cover large scale protected areas and ensuring a healthy future for us all.

Over the past five years alone, OceanMind’s analysts have monitored over 500 million square kilometres of satellite radar imagery covering ocean across a dozen territories as part of our work supporting the UK Blue Belt programme. We have provided more than 200 days of real-time support for patrol vessels, enabling targeted investigations of suspected illegal activity in marine protected areas. We have further supported the UK Government’s Marine Management Organisation in developing the skills and capacity required to analyse remote-sensing data and take action to protect our ocean.

Contact us to find out more about our MPA surveillance and capacity building work.

A call to all governments:
Let’s work on our Ocean to-do list

By Stella Bartolini Cavicchi.

Today on World Ocean Day, we celebrate the incredible progress that the past year has brought us, from the landmark set of goals and targets agreed at the UN biodiversity conference in Montreal in December 2022, to the global commitment and ongoing negotiations to develop an international legally binding treaty on plastic pollution. These frameworks are key to leveraging action for positive change, and in this spirit today we would like to focus our attention on the actions ahead for all nations following the adoption of the BBNJ agreement.

What happened?

World governments came together and compromised to successfully complete a decade-long series of negotiations and agree a text for the international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ in short, also known as the ‘High Seas Treaty’).

What’s next?

The agreement still needs to be formally adopted, which is expected to happen at the next session of the Intergovernmental Conference, taking place on the 19th and 20th June. Then, the long and arduous path to implementation begins, starting with national ratifications. A minimum of 60 countries must ratify the instrument for it to enter into force, and this is no easy feat! For example, as of May 2023, the World Trade Organisation agreement on Fisheries Subsidies of June 2022 received its seventh ratification, with 102 left to go in order to enter into force. By way of comparison, the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA) was approved in 2009 and needed 25 ratifications or other forms of approval to enter into force. This number was only reached in 2016 after significant momentum built up highlighting the importance of this agreement in the global fight to eliminate illegal fishing.

What should countries do to prepare for the implementation of this agreement? In order to successfully implement this game-changing and overarching agreement, countries will need to need to know:

What is happening in the areas immediately outside of their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), especially in waters above their extended continental shelf. This does not just apply to fishing activities but anything that could have impacts within national jurisdiction, as this will be considered when carrying out Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) for activities in areas beyond national jurisdictions.

Where their fleets operate (whether it’s inside or outside Regional Fisheries Management Organisations), which activities they are carrying out and what their possible impact is.

This information will be essential if a country would like to propose the establishment of area-based management tools (ABMTs), including marine protected areas, and equally so if a country is affected by any proposed management tools. Countries will have to know which of their vessels or nationals operate in an area that is the subject of an established ABMT, in order to adopt measures supporting the decisions and recommendations related to it.

It remains to be seen which precise activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction will require an Environmental Impact Assessment, as the Scientific and Technical Body that will be established may develop standards and guidelines on a list of activities and criteria, but the agreement currently states the threshold for conducting a screening of an activity is when the planned activity “may have more than a minor or transitory effect on the marine environment or the effects of the activity are unknown or poorly understood”. Therefore it would be prudent for countries to understand the effect of all activities their fleets and nationals are currently involved in.

It will be also necessary to start building a global picture of the state of the ocean as it is now, and all the activities taking place in/on/around it, in order to act as a baseline for considerations on transboundary harm and cumulative impacts, both addressed in the agreement.

Countries can further show leadership on BBNJ by requesting the provisional application of the agreement until it formally enters into force, and/or by adopting more stringent measures with respect to its nationals and vessels operating in the areas covered by the agreement.

How can OceanMind help?

Marine technology in the agreement is defined as including “expertise, knowledge, skills, technical, scientific and legal know-how and analytical methods related to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity.” At OceanMind we've been supporting governments in doing all of these activities for the purpose of conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity for almost 10 years, so we are in a unique position to play a role in this process. We have strong multidisciplinary expertise, knowledge and skills to provide actionable intelligence to governments in the context of national and regional policies to make implementation easier and successful. We understand the importance of sharing technical know-how and carrying out capacity-building to empower regional, national and local authorities to develop, implement, monitor, manage and enforce management tools including marine protected areas. Our work is carried out in confidence for the sole purpose of meeting authorities’ objectives.

Countries lacking the capacity to carry out this work have a multitude of financing options, ranging from private to second-country aid funding. OceanMind can support governments in this fundraising process, including understanding their needs and seeking out international funding. In addition, once the BBNJ instruments enters into force, it will facilitate substantial Capacity Building and Transfer of Marine Technology (CBTMT) so that countries will be able to receive support for the effective implementation of the agreement.

Click here for more information on how OceanMind can help with PSMA implementation.

Photo by Abyan Athif on Unsplash