The Government of Malta has chosen the vessel monitoring system (VMS) from Spanish technology company Satlink to equip 119 of the vessels in its fishing fleet.
This new five-year contract, which is part-financed by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 2014-2020, will also equip the vessels with satellite transmission services, with Satlink responsible for the support and maintenance of the systems, as well as the training of 15 technicians in the Malta Fisheries Monitoring Centre (FMC).
The Maltese DFA (Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture) has chosen Satlink’s VMS device for its ability to integrate the activity data recorded by skippers in the electronic logbook and transmit it in real time to any national or foreign fisheries authority, including the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA).
To accomplish this, the solution offers connection to other devices via USB, Bluetooth or WiFi technology.
With this decision, the Maltese government strengthens the management and monitoring of its fleet, in line with the current revision of the EU Fisheries Control Regulation, with a tool that will also improve the knowledge of its activity and the adoption of measures for a more sustainable management of the stocks it catches.
Satlink has already obtained certification from the UK Marine Management Organisation as a supplier of VMS systems for the country’s artisanal fishing fleet. It has installed more than 2,700 of these systems in the Spanish fleet.
