A UK fisheries vessel monitoring system (VMS) tender has been awarded to a consortium including UK satellite communications expert, AST Marine Sciences Ltd (ASR MSL) and Slovenia''s EMA Group, the satellite tracking systems research and development specialist.
The contract requires supply and installation of 300 EMA BlueTraker terminals onto UK fishing vessels of between 12m and 15m length before the end of 2012.
The BlueTraker VMS terminal is the latest generation of marine graded satellite terminals especially developed for the vital monitoring of fishing vessels in Europe. It has an integrated design in which all electronics, antennas, GPS receiver, GPRS and satellite communication channels, as well as a back-up rechargeable battery, housed in one unit.
All EU VMS reporting data is transmitted via the Iridium based satellite short burst data service (SBD), providing reliable, global coverage through the Iridium network anywhere at sea.
It also uses CAN bus networking which means that the on-board fishing gear hydraulic pressure switches can be monitored from the Fisheries Monitoring Centre. This enables the authority to automatically and precisely assess the fishing effort for each and every vessel in the fleet.
AST previously won the tender to supply and maintain satellite based GPS tracking devices for DEFRA (including the UK Fisheries Departments in the UK, comprising England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man) on the UK’s 15m fishing fleet - equating to over 800 vessels in 2003.
And EMA has helped to unify the VMS systems in the Easter Adriatic - the BlueTraker VMS is already used to monitor the fishery fleets in Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro and further afield in Malta.
