Jolyon Chesworth
- Research scientist

Marine scientist Jolyon completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. studies at Liverpool and Plymouth universities and is now living in Italy and working at JRC on a European project to improve fishery monitoring and control.

IMPAST (Improving fisheries Monitoring using Passive and Active Satellite Techniques) uses software developed in-house for sea-going vessel detection. The all-weather night time capabilities of the radar imagery used helps to identify illegal fishing operations, and its wide coverage is cheaper than using patrol planes and ships.

The project aims to develop a pre-operational real-time system that combines information from radar satellite images with the on-board vessel monitoring system (VMS) that all EU vessels over 18 metres long have to carry to transmit their correct position at regular intervals. The combination of these two systems shows whether the VMS is functioning properly, or has been tampered with. Image analysis indicates vessels operating in forbidden areas, such as closed boxes. The full detection and location system can be completed within 40 minutes and the information is passed to the relevant fishery monitoring and control authorities for them to take action. Jolyon looks forward to the work he is doing being translated into European legislation to improve sustainable fishing practices. He has great interest in environmental conservation and sustainability issues and encourages fellow thinkers to get as much practical experience as possible in this very specialised branch of marine science.