The Shark Tracking Map

You can now explore the movements of 45 sharks off the east coast of America on Oceana's interactive Global Fishing Watch map. Millions of sharks are caught and killed every year by fishing boats. By overlaying the shark tracks on top of the Global Fishing Watch map users can view where these sharks have intersected with nearby commercial fishing vessels.

Global Fishing Watch aims to help monitor global fishing and protect fish stocks around the world which are threatened by over-fishing, illegal fishing and habitat destruction. The Global Fishing Watch interactive map tracks over 35,000 commercial fishing vessels around the world in near real-time. It also includes historical data on fishing vessel activity from January 1, 2012 until the present day. The near real-time activity and the historical data will hopefully deter illegal fishing and allow fishing managers to understand and manage fishing activity in their waters.

The newly added shark tracks can be viewed by turning on the 'Shark Tracking' layer in the 'Active Layers' menu. The shark tracks are shown in yellow on the interactive map. If you click on one of the yellow tracks on the map you can learn more about the selected individual shark being tracked. This information includes the species of shark, its sex and its length.