Pelagic Data Systems (PDS) provides vessel and fleet tracking solutions designed specifically for artisanal fisheries. The hardware is small, durable, solar-powered, and completely autonomous. Data is transferred automatically to secure servers. High-resolution data enables automatic identification of when/where fishing occurs, type of gear used, and can monitor storage temperatures. The system maps and measures fishing effort to assist managers, support rights-based management systems, and provide monitoring for illegal fishing activities including in protected areas or using illegal gear. The PDS solution not only integrates into any traceability system so that fisheries/distributors/processors can simply expand their existing supply chain platform to achieve complete “boat to plate” transparency and traceability without changing their workflow, it also helps improve product quality by verifying cold chain.