How can a journalist find open-source footage to use as evidence of human rights abuses or illegal fishing on ships? Is it possible to connect ships to the specific seafood buyers? Is there a way to track ships even when they turn their locational transponders off?

These are the kind of questions that motivated us at The Outlaw Ocean Project to create a kit with three essential tools. The first is a forensic guide which offers tips for finding information about offshore activities. The second is a legislative map that aims to capture the rules relating to fishing activities that apply to all coastal nations globally. And the third is a compendium of policy solutions or steps that could be taken as suggested by a variety of stakeholders.

The first tool, called The Ocean Investigations Guide, is meant for journalists, law enforcement, and researchers. It’s written in a question-and-answer fashion to keep the material as focussed as possible. Under the editorial oversight of Joe Galvin, Susan Ryan and Austin Brush, the tool derives from methodologies that were involved in several investigations conducted in recent years. Those include an investigation focused on Libya and migrants crossing the Mediterranean. It draws from another investigation tied to illegal fishing and human rights abuses in China’s seafood supply chain. The guide also derives from tactics used in an investigation of food safety and labor problems in India’s shrimp industry.

The second tool, called The Global Fishing Legislative Database, is an interactive graphic that helps the public answer a variety of important questions about what rules apply in every coastal country’s waters. The intended audience for this resource is journalists, academics, advocates, and other stakeholders. Under the editorial oversight of Maya Martin and Jake Conley, this research effort took a year’s worth of collaboration from an international team of several dozen specialists. It provides contact information for many of these specialists to make it easier for the public to ask them questions. The answers provided by the interactive map offer links to the original and translated passages of the relevant law or regulation. The motivation for making this tool was that simple: we can’t identify crimes at sea if we don’t have a clear sense for the relevant laws.

Admittedly, this map is still a work in progress. Many countries are absent from it. The map lacks certain local or tribal rules. It also does not incorporate rules set by Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs). Nor does it cover activities beyond fishing such as mining or shipping. That said, it is a good start.

The third tool addresses the question of what can be done to solve some of the problems that our reporting highlights. The Ocean Actions Index is a summary of what companies, governments and individuals can do to counter problems at sea.