Methodology

For each country….

1. We conduct an exhaustive search of publicly available documents, websites, digital maps and other sources to generate an initial inventory of managed areas. We also make direct contact with management authorities to request information.

   

2. To determine whether an area is suitable to be included in Navigator, we thoroughly investigate this area to see if it falls within our criteria for the types of areas we include. We only include areas with verifiable, legally implemented protections and boundaries in Navigator. For more details see here.

   

3. As of April 2023, we’ve reviewed 35,000 sites, and found laws for about 24,000.

   

4. Our attorneys, who specialize in ocean law, review and summarize each area’s regulations, management plans, and other legal instruments associated with each specific area. As part of this review, individual fishing gear types and human activities are coded as allowed, restricted, or prohibited. Focal species, where specified, are also noted. See our Data Attributes page for the complete list of what we capture.

5. For countries with official languages other than English, Navigator includes regulation summaries translated into the official languages in addition to English. Translations are made with a combination of online tools and native speakers as needed.

6. Our GIS team reviews boundary data from official sources and matches it to the managed areas. Where electronic boundaries are not available or cannot be verified, they digitize the boundary using the legal description and indicate the boundary source in the data.

7. For each area, we assign a Level of Fishing Protection (LFP) score based on a 1-5 scale using a Decision Tree to ensure comparable scoring for every protected area in the world. When area statistics are reported, the highest LFP score among overlapping areas is used unless otherwise noted.