Advances in the use of nighttime light data to monitor and assess coastal fisheries under the impacts of human activities and climate and environmental changes: A case study in the Beibu Gulf

ABSTRACT

Nighttime light remote sensing has attracted increasing attention in fishery management due to its unique advantages in observing light fisheries. NASA's Black Marble product suite (VNP46A1) and Luojia 1–01 images are the latest nighttime light data with improved spatial and temporal resolutions. This paper developed an effective night-light fishing boat (NLFB) dataset to monitor and assess the coastal light fisheries in the Beibu Gulf. Daily NLFB data from 2018 to 2020 were used to map the spatiotemporal variations in fishing intensity, number of fishing boats and locations of core fishing areas. The influencing mechanisms of climate and environmental changes, fishery closures, COVID-19 and typhoons on the temporal and spatial variations in light fisheries were evaluated and discussed. Combined with the fishery boundaries defined by the China-Vietnam bilateral agreements, nighttime light remote sensing revealed the effective management of and restrictions on (such as fishery closures and lockdowns) fishing activities in the Chinese fishery area. The Vietnamese fishery area was under higher fishing pressure, especially in densely populated estuaries where the fish spawn and feed. Therefore, a cross-regional marine protected area (MPA) is recommended as a realistic strategy for the sustainable management of light fisheries in the Beibu Gulf. Nighttime light remote sensing provides a useful opportunity to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the future.