Satellite AIS company exactEarth has signed an agreement with Canadian aerospace company MDA to provide data services in support of a new Dark Vessel Detection (DVD) programme for the Government of Canada.
The DVD programme is intended to detect and identify vessels that have switched off their AIS transponders and are engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Under the terms of its agreement with MDA, exactEarth will provide global satellite-AIS data services to support pilot trials of the new initiative, which will be combined with other data sources such as imaging from satellites like RADARSAT-2.
“exactEarth has been working with the global fisheries community for the last ten years and we are very pleased to expand our relationship with MDA and to be a part of this leading-edge project to help the Government of Canada in its important fight against IUU,” said Peter Mabson, President and CEO of exactEarth.
“IUU is a global issue and exactEarth’s advanced Satellite-AIS and small vessel tracking capabilities provide an important and comprehensive real time information source in helping to detect and locate vessels that may be engaged in this type of illegal behaviour.”
