Each day we cross-check optical vessel detections against AIS and hand your watch desk the ones with no broadcast: position, size class and time.
The desk scrolls the AIS picture for the zone, looking for tracks that go quiet, and pulls the history on each break to decide which ones deserve a patrol request. It only works on vessels that were broadcasting before they stopped.
A boat that never switched AIS on leaves no track to trawl. When the patrol asset is booked and someone has to say where it goes, the analyst is deciding on a picture with holes in it.
You scroll the AIS picture for the zone and read the tracks that go quiet.
The desk starts from a list. Detections from the day's imagery are matched against AIS and the ones with no matching broadcast are listed.
A vessel that never turned AIS on is not in the data, so there is no track to read.
It was seen in the image, so it is on the list with a position and a time.
Length comes from the registry record for the vessel, if you can tie the track to one.
Each detection carries a size class from the imagery, so you can set a large vessel apart from a small one before you open anything else.
You weigh gap flags, VMS positions and what the desk already knows, and pick a place.
The daily list narrows the search. You see where unmatched vessels sit in relation to your zones and closed areas, and that shapes the request.
The tasking decision, the VMS check, the contact with the flag state and every call on what a vessel is doing.
Notes, screenshots and a spreadsheet of vessels of interest.
The list comes as a CSV that goes into your case-tracking system, and as a map layer for the GIS.
The finding. An unmatched detection is a lead, and whether it becomes a case is the unit's call.
One row per unmatched detection: position, size class and time. It is the feed the desk reads first each morning, and it serves the rows on finding the gaps and sizing up a contact.
Ledger:Finding the gaps · Sizing up a contact
The same detections plotted against your EEZ, closed areas or patrol zones, so the desk sees where they fall without building the map.
The list in a form you can drop into your own case-tracking system, so the detection sits next to the notes you already keep.
Ledger:The case record
Once
Send the EEZ, patrol zone or corridor you want covered, and say which of your closed areas to show on the layer.
Each day
We take a high-resolution satellite pass over the watch area each day the sky allows.
Vessels are detected in the image and matched against AIS broadcasts for the same position and time.
Unmatched vessels come to you as that day's dated list and map layer. Start the morning there, then bring in your VMS picture and what the desk already knows.
Optical imagery needs daylight and a clear view. A cloudy pass is skipped and not estimated, so a zone under persistent cloud can have no list for a day. There is no night coverage.
At the coarse end of the tier a pixel is 2 m across, so a small craft is a few pixels or fewer and is not reliably detected. Fishing skiffs and small boats can be missed. The list covers larger vessels, and the size class is a coarse band, not a length you can quote in a report.
The pass is daily when conditions allow. It is not continuous, and a vessel that comes and goes between passes can be missed.
A vessel with no matching AIS broadcast may have it switched off, may have a fault, or may be a craft not required to carry it. The list does not tell you which, and it does not say whether a vessel was fishing.
The list is a daily product. It is not a live feed and it is not built for interdiction at sea.
No. The list shows a vessel in the image with no matching broadcast. What that means is for your unit to work out.
No. It runs alongside them. Your watch desk still reads VMS and AIS as it does now.
Small craft at the limit of the resolution are not reliably detected. Treat the list as a view of larger vessels.
The pass is skipped for the parts of your area under cloud. We don't estimate what was there.
No. Optical detection needs daylight.
Take a set of past dates where your desk already knows which vessels were dark and compare them with our list.
The list comes as a CSV and as a map layer. We don't write into your case-tracking system.
Ask before you start. A person answers questions on imagery and data rights, not this page.
Cost depends on the size of the watch area and how it is covered. Tell us your zone and we'll scope it to that.
Send us the watch area and we'll tell you what the daily pass would show over it.
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