But these ‘dark fleets’ could only stay hidden for so long. In July of , a team of researchers led by Global Fishing Watch and including scientists from Japan, South Korea, Australia and the United States, revealed that over vessels originating from China were active in North Korean waters – a discovery made possible by combining AIS data and satellite imagery (Figure ). It’s estimated that between and , these vessels caught more than half a billion dollars’ worth of squid – making this the largest known case of illegal fishing by vessels originating from one country, operating in another country’s waters (i.e. foreign fishing)

TED is a nonprofit organisation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, often in the form of short talks delivered by leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED conferences, intimate TED Salons and thousands of independently organised TEDx events around the world. Videos of these talks are made available, free, on TED.com and other platforms. Audio versions of TED Talks are published to TED Talks Daily, available on all podcast platforms.

Most emissions are produced by the oil and gas and petrochemical industries in the “upstream” part of the lifecycle. Mechanical recycling reduces cradle-to-grave emissions by at least to per cent compared to producing polymers from fossil fuels by avoiding upstream emissions. While the emissions reduction opportunities from recycling are significant, they can only be part of the solution towards a net zero plastics economy.

The results have had a huge impact on fisheries management and led to Timor-Leste reporting an accurate estimate of the national catch to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in , the first since . Program findings contributed to the drafting of a new national fisheries strategy and revisions to the country’s fisheries law in . The same year, the Timorese government officially adopted PeskAAS, placing it among the most sophisticated national monitoring systems for small-scale fisheries in the world.

Cecilia Blasco is Executive Director of Smartfish Rescate de Valor, AC where she oversees a multidisciplinary team that provides technical and entrepreneurial assistance to artisanal fishers and seafood buyers. Founded in , SmartFish’s mission is to foster a market for sustainably caught seafood in Mexico by catalyzing both supply and demand. Before joining SmartFish Cecilia worked at the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature for over years. Cecilia is originally from Argentina and lived in Kenya, Switzerland, and the USA before moving to Mexico. She has a Master’s in Environmental Science from the Yale Environmental School and a BA in geography from Dartmouth College.