Rahul NairArabian Sea, IndiaLiveExample project

Coastal MPA Compliance Monitor

Open dashboard tracking fishing activity against marine protected area boundaries via AIS.

RegulationsMPAComplianceTransparency

About this project

This is a technically sound, high-impact operational monitoring project: an open AIS-based dashboard tracking fishing activity against MPA boundaries. Strengths are strong alignment with vessel-tracking science and open-data presentation; primary gaps are coverage limits of AIS (small/illegal vessels), unclear governance/enforcement pathways, and limited detail on community engagement and safeguards.

AI summary by the Ozeaon Climate Intelligence System

Why this integrity score?

The OCIS Integrity Report below explains the reasoning behind the headline score — dimension by dimension — and is readable in full here.

Score Reasoning — Dimensions

The headline score is a weighted sum of six integrity dimensions assessed by the Ozeaon Climate Intelligence System.

Scientific Rigor20% weight
84
Method (AIS vessel-tracking vs. geofenced MPAs) is well-established and evidence-based for tracking vessel presence, but proposal lacks validation details and error/uncertainty quantification.
Open Science15% weight
87
Dashboard and AIS are inherently shareable and the proposal states openness, but specifics on data licensing, reproducible code, and archival are not provided.
Measurability (dMRV)20% weight
77
AIS supports high‑frequency, verifiable monitoring of vessel incursions, but AIS gaps, spoofing risk, and lack of a described validation pipeline reduce measurability confidence.
Additionality & Impact15% weight
69
A public compliance dashboard can increase deterrence and enable enforcement, but causal links to reduced fishing pressure or ecological recovery are not demonstrated and enforcement pathways are unclear.
Transparency & Governance15% weight
74
Open dashboard implies transparency, but the proposal omits governance, data ownership, funding flows, and accountability arrangements.
Community & Equity15% weight
71
Project can benefit coastal communities through clearer compliance, but the proposal provides no detail on consultation, benefit-sharing, or safeguards for small-scale fishers.

Strengths

Uses a well-understood, high-frequency data source (AIS) suitable for near-real-time tracking of larger vessels.
Open dashboard approach supports transparency, public scrutiny, and potential collaboration with enforcement agencies and researchers.
Low-cost, scalable monitoring model that can be deployed across many MPAs and integrated with other datasets.

Risks & Gaps

AIS does not cover many small/nearshore or non-cooperative vessels (no AIS or AIS spoofing), leading to blind spots in enforcement and impact measurement.
No described governance or enforcement pathway — monitoring without enforcement risks limited additionality.
Community interests and potential negative social impacts on small-scale fishers are not addressed, posing equity and acceptance risks.

dMRV Recommendation

Tier

Tier 2 — Operational Monitoring

Cadence

Near-real-time (automated alerts) + daily processing of AIS tracks, with quarterly aggregated reports and annual verification summaries

Recommended

Yes

AIS provides the necessary temporal resolution for compliance monitoring and an open dashboard supports transparency and independent verification. To achieve robust dMRV, combine AIS with satellite SAR/VMS for coverage gaps, implement an explicit QA/QC and incident validation workflow, and publish code, data schemas, and licenses so external auditors and stakeholders can reproduce metrics and hold implementers to account.

AIS vessel tracking (primary)Integration with VMS and port call data (where available)Satellite SAR / optical imagery to detect non-AIS vessels and validate dark activityAutomated geofencing + behavioral inference algorithms (loitering, transits, fishing patterns)Incident validation workflow (alerts -> investigator / camera / patrol verification) and QA/QC pipeline

About this project

Generating OCIS summary & integrity report…