AI Casts a Digital Net to Protect Russia’s Fish Stocks

In Russia, artificial intelligence is diving into the deep end—this time to safeguard the country’s aquatic ecosystems

With fish populations under pressure from commercial harvesting, the government is turning to AI to deliver what humans can’t: an objective, data-rich assessment of the environmental impact of industrial fishing.

According to Ilya Shestakov, head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries (Rosrybolovstvo), traditional monitoring methods are no longer enough. Enter homegrown AI systems, now capable of analyzing vast volumes of data to precisely measure ecological damage and guide smarter fishing policies.

“Neural networks are already being used in modernizing equipment,” Shestakov noted. “On fishing trawlers, AI handles everything from voyage safety to real-time crew communications—ensuring operations stay seamless and secure at sea.”

The stakes are high: Russia’s fishing industry is a strategic economic sector, with both harvest volumes and exports on the rise. But growth isn’t coming at the planet’s expense. Strict sustainability protocols are in place, including periodic bans on high-value species, aimed at protecting fragile marine populations.

This is where AI becomes more than a tool—it’s a digital steward for ocean health, helping balance economic interests with long-term resource preservation. Russia isn’t just tracking its fish—it’s teaching the algorithms to understand the ecosystem itself.