Although the maritime AIS system was primary developed to increase safety at sea, it also provides maritime authorities a better way to monitor water traffic and movements and to identify vessels. Fishing vessels are exempt from this regulation, but those of a specific size may be required to carry AIS by national regulations (for example in Norway, the United States of America and the European Union). Unlike traditional communication stations, satellites are not limited by the horizontal range of signals. They are able to relay AIS communications over vast distances. Luckily, in parallel with vast advancements in cloud technology and infrastructure, various organizations are now able to process and analyse such immense amounts of data. In fisheries, the use of AIS data through applied machine learning and artificial intelligence provides new ways to estimate fishing effort, socio-economic indicators and fishing patterns.