Automatic vessel monitoring for regulated fisheries is an important growth market for Iridium.
Several Service Partners have developed Iridium-based Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMSs) that permit shore authorities to track the location and activity of fishing vessels in protected fisheries.
The Faria WatchDog® VMS recently received type approval from the Pacific Island Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) for its 16 member countries, the National Fishery Authority Papua New Guinea and the Australian and New Zealand Fishery Agencies, as well as the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries.
Faria WatchDog is also type approved by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for all US fishery regions. The Faria WatchDog is a dual-mode transceiver product that uses the Iridium satellite network for position reporting and GSM data links when working in range of shore towers. The unit provides text messaging, mandated VMS position reporting and activity code declarations, catch and notification forms, and email as well as automatic transmission of required VMS data information to fishery authorities.
Zunibal S.A. has introduced an Iridium-enabled VMS product that meets the latest revised regulations recently published by the Spanish government for commercial fishing vessel tracking. The new Zunibal ZVMS77 shipboard VMS transponder uses Iridium’s 9601 SBD modem to transmit the vessel’s GPS position coordinates, speed, heading and status information at automatic intervals or in response to a polling request from the Spanish fishing authorities.
Collecte Localisation Satellite (CLS) has developed an advanced VMS product that provides vessel tracking in compliance with international regulations and also meets emerging standards for electronic reporting systems (ERSs). The European Union (EU) will require approved ERS devices on commercial fishing vessels larger than 24m by 1 January 2010, and vessels over 15m by 1 January 2012. The ERS will replace the current manual record keeping with an electronic logbook, which is used to transmit catch, landing, sales and transshipment data to fishing authorities. The CLS Halios system provides both VMS and ERS functions in a single device.
