In February 2026, the EMC4C Project Team traveled to Majuro, Marshall Islands to install EM and Wi-Fi systems on three industrial tuna vessels and train crew and captains on their use.
In mid-February 2026, our cross-organizational team of EM, Wi-Fi, AI, fisheries and labor rights practitioners arrived in Majuro, Marshall Islands. There, our team installed EM and Wi-Fi systems on three industrial longline vessels that had just come to port. Majuro is a thin arc of land where walking from the lagoon side to the ocean side takes only minutes—a geography that keeps space tight and logistics creative. Despite its narrow footprint, it hosts one of the world’s busiest fishing ports, making it a strategic hub for advancing transparency and crew welfare at sea.
As a multidisciplinary, collaborative team of roughly 15 project managers, interpreters, technology specialists, and willing vessel owners, we were able to:
- Install EM and Wi-Fi systems on three industrial longline vessels to test how these systems can be used for labor and environmental monitoring at sea.
- Install NVIDIA Jetson devices on two of these vessels to enable future edge‑AI innovations that enhance EM review for environmental data collection and assess potential applications for labor‑related data, such as working hours.
- Train three captains and 43 Indonesian migrant crew members on Wi-Fi access under a new, first-of-its kind binding agreement, negotiated and signed between the vessel owner and crew.
- Provide training to all crews on available grievance mechanisms, digital communication and how EM supports both environmental and labor rights monitoring.
- Conduct in‑depth interviews with 12 crew members and three captains, listening to their experiences at sea and the challenges of isolation, and to better understand how improved on-the-water connectivity can support safety, welfare, and transparency.
- Form a Crew Committee with crew-nominated leaders from the three vessels to generate leadership and ownership for and by the crew to maintain proper procedures around Wi-Fi and EM.
- Build stronger relationships between crew and captains through dialogue and collaboration to support long-term project success.
Connecting with these crew members—many just back from months at sea—was a powerful reminder of why this project exists. Technology only matters when it strengthens people’s ability to work safely and with dignity, and the crew’s openness and willingness to test new tools have shaped every part of our approach. Their engagement, paired with the on‑the‑ground insights of captains, vessel owners, NGOs, frontline organizations and technology partners, keeps this effort rooted in real conditions at sea. That combination is what allows us to design systems that are not just innovative, but genuinely responsive to the needs and rights of the people who use them.
Up next, we’ll be on the ground in Taiwan, where we’ll install Wi‑Fi, train new crews, and help form a Crew Committee on two industrial purse seine vessels. Later this year, we’ll return to Pago Pago, American Samoa to engage with three vessels that have been collaborating with our teams since early 2024, to train existing and new crews on updated project elements, and ensure all EM and Wi‑Fi systems are ready for this next phase of data collection including revised labor rights indicators and assessment of Wi-Fi access on board.
For now, we’re grateful for ten industrious days on one of the world’s narrowest atolls—proof that even in a high‑traffic fishing port in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, meaningful connection still happens one conversation at a time.
This is part of a special EM4humanity series you can track through the timeline on our new EM4humanity section here.
