Monitoring high-seas fisheries with long-range passive acoustic sensors

The decline of the world´s major fisheries has spurred international conservation efforts. Toward this goal, various technological means of monitoring fishing have been implemented. The authors report on experiments with passive acoustic listening, using the US Navy´s Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS). They describe some of the results obtained in a series of experiments over the 1992-1995 period on driftnet fishing (now banned by international treaty), salmon poaching in the North Pacific, and trawlers in the Bering Sea “Donut Hole”