Image (c) Shutterstock

By Chuin-Wei Yap And Sameer Mohindru

China’s growing hunger for seafood is testing relations with other countries and worrying foreign officials and scientists over the potential damage its massive fleet could do to global fishing stocks.

In the latest example, Argentina reported on Wednesday that it had captured on Monday two Chinese fishing vessels that it said were illegally fishing in its waters. Officials noted that Argentina’s coast guard boarded the ships after firing warning shots to prevent them from fleeing to international waters, and that the vessels were carrying 10 metric tons of squid and fish.

Argentina authorities say the Chinese ships were intercepted off Patagonia, two nautical miles inside Argentina’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone, on Monday. A federal judge is questioning the ship captains, officials said. In a statement, China’s Foreign Ministry said it is trying to verify the facts of the case.

The episode comes as China’s fishing boats increasingly find themselves embroiled in both cross-border and commercial disputes. Chinese ships fish in both international waters and under bilateral fisheries agreements in the waters of other nations. They work for largely private companies or for themselves, and aren’t generally directed by Beijing.

However, in Asian waters, fishing boats have become a proxy for China’s sovereign reach in largely territorial spats. In cases farther afield, its fishing boats have been entangled in accusations of overfishing and harming local economies.

In recent weeks, South Korea seized a Chinese boat and detained 24 sailors for allegedly illegally fishing in the Yellow Sea. Vietnam has accused Chinese fishing boats of cutting its gas-exploration cables at sea. Chinese fishing boats have also sailed around the disputed island chain known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu–which means “fishing” in Chinese–in China, contributing to worsening relations with Tokyo.

Official data projects that China, the world’s largest seafood consumer, is on track to produce more than 60 million tons of seafood by 2015, up from 53.7 million tons two years ago. Some foreign officials question Chinese catch reports and believe total production may be even higher.

Investment bank Rabobank estimates that seafood imports to China–where consumers have for centuries considered fish beneficial to the brain–will total $20 billion by the end of the decade from around $8 billion currently.

Beijing has big plans for expanding its fishing armada to feed that appetite, aiming to increase its long-range fishing fleet by 16% by the end of 2015 to about 2,300 ships compared with 2010. By comparison, the U.S. distant-waters fishing fleet totals around 200 ships.

In a review earlier this year, a congressional agency set up to explore the national-security implications of U.S.-China economic relations said China’s growing fleet has “global implications.”

“China, in particular, uses the resources of its five maritime security agencies to enforce its claims in disputed waters, by escorting Chinese fishing vessels and enforcing seasonal fishing bans on foreign vessels,” Commissioner Daniel Slane said at a hearing in January. “These civilian fleets allow Beijing to maintain a maritime presence in disputed waters without having a consistent or overt naval presence.”

China’s Foreign Ministry referred questions to the Agriculture Ministry, which didn’t respond to faxed questions and declined to comment in a telephone call. China has said it has sovereignty over the South China Sea and the Diaoyu islands and therefore has the right to escort its fishing vessels there.

The territorial issues and environmental concerns echo the tensions China has faced in a number of industries, from energy to mining to agriculture, as it looks for raw materials to feed its growth. China has moved aggressively in recent years to purchase resources abroad to bolster its energy, minerals and food security, adding needed investment to increase global supplies but raising worries in Washington and elsewhere about China’s sway.

China’s hunger is growing at a time when around 87% of global fisheries are seen to be at full exploitation, over-exploited, or depleted, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. China like other nations has signed international agreements that allow it to fish in global waters, and some fishing experts have praised Beijing for beefing up its statistics on fishing in some areas and for raising more fish in domestic farms.

Still, a European Commission report this year said China reported just 368,000 tons of its 2010-2011 catch from the high seas compared with an estimated actual haul of 4.6 million tons.

Africa–where local governments often have few resources to police opaque bilateral water-access agreements to make sure vessels pay for what they catch–accounts for more than two-thirds of China’s long-haul harvest, the report said.

The situation is made more murky by a lack of regulation in China, said Tabitha Grace Mallory, an industry expert with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “One of the big problems on China’s domestic front is lack of capacity and resources in the fisheries bureau, and less control and law-enforcement ability over increasingly private Chinese fishing companies who disobey rules,” she said.

China’s fishing vessels are being drawn ever farther afield because overfishing in neighboring waters, including around North Korea, Indonesia and Myanmar, has led to falling production in Asian waters, according to an essay from China’s agriculture ministry.

In comparison, the ministry said, the catch from West Africa rose 14% in volume and 41% in value last year from 2010. In Mauritania alone, the catch rose 51% in volume and 66% in value over the period, it said. In Morocco, catch values rose 50% despite a smaller volume due to a shortened fishing season.

Peru, a major source of seafood for China, has slashed its global commercial fishing quota for anchovy during the Nov. 22-Jan. 31 season by 68% to a 25-year low of 810,000 tons because of depleted stocks. Anchovy is processed into fishmeal, of which Peru is the largest exporter and China the main buyer.

“There is still a large scope to expand Peru’s trade with China in future, but we also want to conserve marine resources,” said Peru’s ambassador to China, Gonzalo Gutierrez.

(c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

BUENOS AIRES–Argentina’s coast guard has detained two Chinese ships as it steps up efforts to prevent illegal fishing in its waters.

The fishing ships are currently being held in the Patagonian port of Comodoro Rivadavia where a federal judge has opened an investigation into the matter.

The captains are currently being questioned by the judge and the crews have been ordered to remain on board their vessels, a coast guard official said.

The coast guard intercepted the ships two nautical miles inside Argentina’s 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone on Dec. 24, Argentina’s Security Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the coast guard boarded the ships after firing warning shots to prevent them from fleeing to international waters.

The vessels were carrying 10 tons of squid and fish.

The ministry said the ships left China on Oct. 23 with a combined crew of 36 people.

Officials from the Chinese Embassy didn’t return a message seeking comment.

Argentina’s government has invested heavily in the Navy and Coast Guard over the past decade to boost patrolling and “defend the countries sovereignty and fisheries,” the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

Argentina is a leading global seafood exporter with many fishing fleets from Asia and other parts of the world prowling the country’s rich southern waters each season.

During the first 10 months of the year, Argentine fish and shellfish exports were valued at just over $1 billion, according to government data.

(Ken Parks contributed to this article.)

(c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

A report by NOAA in 2006 warned that “despite the implementation of domestic and international management measures, the status of Atlantic blue and white marlin has continued to decline. Currently, the status of sailfish and spearfish is uncertain. Atlantic white marlin has been identified as one of the most severely overfished species of any stock under ICCAT’s purview for the past four years, but nevertheless continues to be subjected to unsustainable levels of fishing mortality throughout the Atlantic.”

Supported by a study conducted in 2000 that showed a significant increase in the incidental catching of billfish such as blue marlin, white marlin, sailfish, as well as under-sized swordfish when using live bait, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has since prohibited the use of live bait fishing while using longlines in the Gulf of Mexico (65 FR 47214, August 1, 2000).

On Tuesday, the United States Coast Guard and NOAA seized nearly 8,000 pounds of illegally caught fish from the 62-foot fishing vessel Blue Fin in Dulac, Louisiana on Tuesday.  The Dulac-based vessel Blue Fin crew was allegedly using live bait and was cited for other fishery violations approximately 90 miles off the Louisiana coast.

The catch and estimated pounds that was reported seized is as follows:

• 7,133 pounds of yellowfin tuna;
• 535 pounds of escolar (oilfish);
• 220 pounds of wahoo;
• 44 pounds of mahi-mahi.

The overall estimated price of the catch was more than $20,000.

View of a South Korean Coast Guard cutter. Photo by USCG Petty Officer Jonathan Cilley

(Bloomberg) — A Chinese fisherman died from injuries sustained in a South Korean coast guard raid after his vessel entered South Korean waters in the Yellow Sea, adding to heightened tensions sparked by maritime disputes in the region.

South Korea’s foreign ministry notified the Chinese embassy in Seoul about the death and will investigate the incident, the ministry said in a text message to reporters. The ministry expressed regret over the “unfortunate” incident and sent its condolences to the dead fisherman’s family, it said.

Chinese fishing crews have clashed repeatedly in recent years with the coast guards and commercial vessels of nearby countries, including South Korea, Vietnam and Japan. Yesterday’s killing comes amid heightened tensions with Japan over islands claimed by both sides in an area of the East China Sea rich in fish, oil and gas.

The raid on two vessels occurred at 3:45 p.m. yesterday in southwestern waters, according to the coast guard statement. Yonhap News reported that a coast guard officer shot and killed the man during a raid on 30 Chinese boats fishing illegally in the area. A separate Korean-language Yonhap report said the fisherman was killed when he was hit by a rubber bullet.

China filed a protest to South Korea and expressed “serious concern” over the incident, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a briefing in Beijing today. He said China demanded an investigation and wants South Korea to “take concrete measures to prevent violent law enforcement and similar incidents from happening again.’”

Officer Stabbed

Last year, a Chinese sailor stabbed and killed a South Korean Coast Guard officer during a raid on his ship. South Korea occasionally seizes Chinese ships. In 2010, two Chinese sailors were killed when their boat overturned and sank after ramming a South Korean Coast Guard vessel.

China’s territorial dispute with Japan sparked protests in several Chinese cities last month and strained a trade relationship worth more than $340 billion.

Speaking at a briefing in Bangkok yesterday, U.S. Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Locklear said the U.S. seeks a “peaceful environment” in the East and South China seas. He said it’s important to “recognize these will be difficult issues.”

Rival maritime claims among half a dozen Asian nations have fueled tension this year ahead of China’s leadership transition. China is establishing a military garrison on a disputed island, while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei are asserting their own claims.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino today said he sees “more room” to discuss territorial disputes with China after it completes its leadership change at a Communist Party congress that begins next month. The Southeast Asian nation wants to resolve the issue “amicably” and there are currently “no back channel efforts” with China, he said.

By Sangwon Yoon, © 2012 BLOOMBERG

While local fishermen may share the anger and resentment of Napoleon and Admiral Nelson, the battle tactics of the French more closely resembles that of Paul Watson than of Napoleon.

According to the New York Times, the first blows of aggression were struck by the French on Monday, when their fishing boats surrounded British vessels and pelted them with catapults, stones, nuts and bolts to which the British of course responded by dropping trou and mooning the French.

At stake are lucrative scallop stocks the French claim are being poached by their British competitors. At the center of the debate are new French laws which limit fishing in the region to a five-month period ending on October 1.

British trawlers however, can catch scallops year-round.

According to Sky News, the French fishermen were attempting to close off the disputed waters to British boats, but were soon dispersed by French navy ships.

So, the Great Scallop War, and its moonings and stone throwings, will likely resume again in the near future until this issue is resolved.

Or perhaps it will continue until all the scallops are gone.

Or, perhaps even more likely, it will continue until after the scallops are gone, all the way through to the end of time itself.

The conference, attended by 58 States, was held from 9 to 11 October in Cape Town, South Africa, under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for maritime safety and security and the prevention of pollution from ships.

IMO Secretary-General Mr. Koji Sekimizu stated that, “In the centenary year of Titanic, we are making history to improve safety of fishing vessels. The Conference was only a short three-day meeting and the final document, the Cape Town Agreement was a brief instrument. But, the IMO has spend five years of intensive discussions and preparation for this Conference and the Agreement carries heavy weight of expectation for bringing safety regulations in force accumulated over 35 years since the adoption of the Torremolinos Convention which did not entered into force. The Agreement reflects our renewed commitment and Good Hope that the Provisions of the1993 Toremolinos Protocol will come into force, this time, in very near future. I encourage all IMO member states and those which has a large number of fishing vessels, in particular, to ratify the Agreement without delay.”

In ratifying the agreement, Parties agree to amendments to the provisions of the 1993 Protocol, so that they can come into force as soon as possible thereafter.

The Cape Town Agreement of 2012 will enter into force 12 months after 22 member nations consent to be bound by it.

Image (c) CreativeNature/Shutterstock

(Bloomberg) — Gulf of Mexico fisheries are rebounding from the BP Plc oil spill, landing more fish last year than in 2009, the year before the worst U.S. offshore marine disaster, the government said.

The total Gulf catch was 25 percent bigger last year than in 2009, 55 percent more than in 2010 and the largest since 1999, the National Marine Fisheries Service said today in a report. In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers and triggering a spill the government estimated at more than 4 million barrels.

“Our fisheries are on the way up,” Harlon Pearce, chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, said in an interview. Some species are doing better than others, and the industry will “need another year or two of stabilization” before it’s back completely, he said.

The disaster hurt fisheries that last year provided about a fifth of the seafood landed by U.S. fishermen, a catch valued at a record $5.3 billion, according to the report. The country’s haul was the biggest in volume since 1994. The U.S. is the world’s fifth-biggest fishing nation, after China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The 2011 catch from Gulf states totaled 1.984 billion pounds, up from 1.283 billion in 2010 and 1.583 billion in 2009, the National Marine Fisheries Service, a unit of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in the report. Landings of menhaden, a fish used mainly for oil and meal, were up 66 percent over 2010. That species accounted for much of the Gulf’s growth, while oysters, crabs and shrimp still haven’t bounced back from pre-spill levels, Pearce said.

Report Challenged

Dean Blanchard, chief executive officer of Dean Blanchard Seafood Inc., a shrimper based in Grand Isle, Louisiana, said the government statistics are misleading and fail to tell the tale of individual operations. Fishing operations are constrained by geography, because going greater distances to find fish raises transportation costs and eats profits, he said.

The company is suing BP, claiming its settlement offer comes nowhere near meeting the needs of those most affected by the spill.
London-based BP agreed in March to pay an estimated $7.8 billion to resolve most private plaintiffs’ claims for economic loss, property damage and injuries. The company declined to comment on today’s report.

“We’re not recovering. Where the oil went, there’s nothing left living,” Blanchard said in a telephone interview. “I’m losing customers. I’m just stuck.” Blanchard called the proposed settlement “a joke” and said his catch is about 10 percent to 15 percent of normal.

Large amounts of weathered oil and tar that washed up last month after Hurricane Isaac came ashore along the Gulf Coast show that the spill is still affecting the region, Stuart Smith, a lawyer for hundreds of property owners and fishing and tourism businesses, said last week in a letter to the U.S. magistrate judge overseeing spill litigation.

-By Alan Bjerga. Copyright 2012 Bloomberg.

FV Amaltal Columbia. Image via Shipspotting.com

Update: All 43 crew of the 64m New Zealand fishing boat Amaltal Columbia, owned by Talley’s, have abandoned ship and been transferred to two other fishing vessels following a fire on board, approximately 70km north-east of Lyttelton Heads.

A total of 39 members of the crew are now safely on board the Russian fishing vessel, the Ivan Golubets, which initially responded to the mayday call from the vessel.

Four other crew have been transferred the San Discovery, which subsequently arrived at the scene.

The crew are being taken to Lyttelton.

No injuries have been reported.

Original: A 64-meter fishing boat with 43 people on board is on fire about 45 nautical miles off north-east coast of coast of New Zealand’s South Island, Maritime New Zealand said in a statement Wednesday.

MNZ it had received an initial call from the FV Amaltal Columbia about the fire at approximately 5:24 a.m. local time (1724 GMT) and a mayday call from the boat at around 5:30 a.m. MNZ added that vessel is currently making its way toward Lyttelton port at about seven and a half knots.

“It is anticipated the fire will cause the loss of the main engine in due course,” Maritime New Zealand said. “A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion is in position above the vessel monitoring the situation, with two vessels responding to a mayday relay call.”

The fire is said to have been in the “meal hold” of the vessel, which has been sealed off in an effort to starve the fire of oxygen, but the engine remains at risk.

So far no injuries have been reported.

Local media reports have just indicated that an abandon ship order has been issued and crew of 43 have transferred to three lifeboats in “difficult” conditions, says the Rescue Coordination Centre’s Steve Rendle.

An earlier report by MNZ says that there is a 3 meter swell in the area with winds of 15–25 knots.

Story developing…

About FV Amaltal Columbia

The FV Amaltal Columbia is the flagship vessel in New Zealand’s Tally’s Group’s deep sea fishing fleet.  The ship was the world’s first factory freezer trawler to be registered with ISO 9002 certification.

The ship has extensive capabilities to process all waste products for recycling or non-polluting disposal. Even the ship’s boilers are able to run on waste fish oil.

Amaltal Columbia
Length overall (m): 64
Gross tonnage (MT): 1970
Main engine (HP): 3340

Luxspace VesselSat 2 AIS Satellite

While the United States continues to struggle integrating AIS into the national data stream, Europe pushes forward with plans to acquire ship tracking data across a wide swath of ocean via satellite.

ORBCOMM, via partner LuxSpace Sarl (LuxSpace), recently announced a multi-year framework contract to provide satellite Automatic Identification System (AIS) data used for ship tracking and other maritime navigational and safety efforts to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) for designated regions and specific maritime projects. The framework contract is funded for up to 500,000 Euros (US $625,000) for the first year with options for an additional two years with funding levels yet to be determined.

The contract award was the result of a competitive bid among providers of space-based AIS data service. EMSA determined that the AIS service provided by ORBCOMM and LuxSpace met their operational goals, citing the service offering ‘was the most advantageous in regards of quality price ratio.’

Headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, EMSA is one of the largest consolidators of AIS data and is responsible for maritime safety, pollution and security on board ships for the European Union and its Member States.

“We are pleased to announce the new EMSA contract, which solidifies our market leadership in providing space-based AIS services,” said Marc Eisenberg, ORBCOMM’s Chief Executive Officer. “This contract award affirms that ORBCOMM’s AIS offering provides the best combination of quality and price available in the market today.”

The Satellite AIS data will be supplied through Vesselsat 1 and 2 owned by LuxSpace and operated within the Orbcomm 2nd generation AIS satellite networt. To further improve ORBCOMM’s global AIS service, eighteen additional AIS-enabled satellites that make up ORBCOMM’s next generation constellation are scheduled to begin launching later this year. These additional satellites will enhance ORBCOMM’s unmatched coverage, highest refresh rates and superior performance.

EMSA plans to use the information to improve European vessel traffic monitoring, streamline the port state inspection process and provide data to a number of smaller EMSA projects. One such project, administered by the European Fisheries Control Agency, is the monitoring of Bluefin Tuna fishing in the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Atlantic waters.

In response to a formal request from EFCA for monitoring support, EMSA set up a pilot project, called Marsurv-3 on 15 May of this year. The maritime surveillance data provided by EMSA covers six zones of interest in the Mediterranean Sea and combines specific fisheries information with maritime data available provided by EMSA.. The project was developed using the first version of EMSA’s Integrated Maritime Data Platform (IMDatE) and is a good example of how an inter-agency approach of integrating maritime data can bring added value to the end user.

“Our firm aim is to ensure that all fishermen are treated on equal footing and to foster transparency and cooperation in the control and inspection activities between Member States“ said Pascal Savouret, Executive Director of EFCA.

The data provided to EFCA by EMSA is currently gathered via a network of mostly terrestrial based antennas and data system and maritime experts suggest the addition of ORBCOMM’s satellite AIS data will provide a more dense and accurate view of fishing activities including illegal operations which are depleting Bluefin Tuna and other protected fisheries.

The agreement is not the first major announcement of satellite AIS data providers to assist state sponsored projects. In February of 2010 Ontario based exactEarth, announced a $1.4 million contract with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to provide space-based Automatic Identification System (S-AIS) data. This contract provided new opportunities for exactEarth which more recently announced $9.4 million in new business for the 2011 fiscal year.

Security, Environmental and Criminal Surveillance

The primary use of AIS data has, so far, been port state control and customs, but this is a result of the limitations of terrestrial based AIS data which has an effective range of only 20-30 nautical miles according to exactEarth’s VP of Global Sales and Marketing, John Allan. Once you extend AIS vessel tracking across the oceans new opportunities emerge including criminal tracking, environmental crime monitoring and anti-piracy surveillance.

ORBCOMM has worked with numerous ship owners around the world to successfully identify the location of hijacked ships, enabling more rapid response from maritime authorities. Post-piracy tracking and reporting via ORBCOMM AIS is also used to identify typical traffic patterns and activities in high-risk areas, which can help local and national security organizations proactively counter piracy hijackings, kidnappings and extortion.

“If you look at the world itself, 84% is unwired, you need space based satellites to survey these regions. 70% of this is oceans. In essence the oceans are black holes in which people can hide and disappear.” said Allan, during a keynote presentation at last week’s GeoMaritime conference in London. “Understanding whats happening (at sea) is becoming crucial from a security perspective.”

The data provided by satellite AIS will likely assist maritime, military and law enforcement agencies in the near future helping to close the “black holes” and, in the near future, allow truly global tracking of not only ships and containers but also people.

The Mariner Perspective

Satellite AIS will soon allow not only governments to access historical tracks of ships and people, but will also provide real-time updates across the internet enabling friends and family to receive updates on the progress of individual sailors as they cross oceans. For some mariners location-based messages, send to friends and family via a GMDSS terminal or a satellite tracking device like Yellowbrick, are already available.

Facebook might be next.

The technology is beginning to emerge for a mariner to post his ship’s position to Facebook automatically via devices Yellowbrick and allow friends and family to track their progress across the ocean. These services however, are opt-in meaning the mariner (or company) selects who has access to the position data. With satellite-based AIS systems, the mariner many not have a choice. If satellite AIS information becomes free and ubiquitous across oceans – as it already is near shore – then ex-wives, creditors and everyone else who knows what ship you work on, will have access to your location.

Some Mariners will embrace this technology, but others enjoy the freedom of disappearing from the world once they board a vessel bound for the high sea. Sailors may worry about big-brother monitoring their every move at sea, but the cost to privacy also comes with benefits which every mariner can appreciate.

Benefits like enhanced SAR.

Excellent programs like AMVER track ships on a true global scale and use the information to provide search and rescue assistance to vessels well beyond Coast Guard helicopter range. Might programs like this benefit from improved, real-time, data?

Orbcomm thinks so.

For vessels in distress, the company’s AIS service can identify exactly where a vessel is located anywhere in the world even if it continues to drift from the distress location. Access to accurate, reliable and timely data about the position and status of a vessel and its crew can greatly improve response time by focusing search and rescue resources to a specific area and enhancing overall rescue coordination.

Most importantly, satellite AIS data can help minimize damage to and loss of the vessel, potentially saving lives. This service is can also track rescue teams and reduce the risk to rescuers, especially in harsh weather environments. Maritime authorities in Australia have already used ORBCOMM’s AIS service in search and rescue operations to identify and request nearby vessels to help other vessels in distress.

A 2009 report from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority explains how satellite AIS data was used to “identify a merchant ship not otherwise known to RCC Australia”. The AIS data was then used to direct the ship to the scene of a yacht in distress off the northern Australia coast, where two people were rescued.

“We are proud that ORBCOMM’s satellite AIS receivers were able to collect messages from the low-wattage search and rescue transponders.” said Marc Eisenberg, Chief Executive Officer of ORBCOMM. “The fact that our satellite AIS capability is saving lives is a testament to the reliability of our satellite AIS technology and can significantly benefit SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) in the future.”

Many countries have fallen behind in the maritime information space race which leads to the question… will the United States, and other countries with large commercial fleets and deepwater fisheries like Japan, follow suit?

Related Video

The following video shows an overview of ORBCOMM AIS coverage across the globe:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Earth’s VP of Global Sales and Marketing, John Allan, gives a keynote presentation at GeoMaritime 2012 discussing advances in detection and applications of Satellite AIS:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“The Simrad navigation package is ideal for a small patrol vessel such as Sealegs” said Bethune, “The 4G Broadband Radar is perfect for this kind of operation due to the low radiation and beam sharpening technology. Additionally, Structure Scan is essential to determine potential underwater hazards for our planned amphibious beach landings on uncharted coastlines”.

“Simrad Broadband Radars are in use around the world by many police, military units as well as Coastguard vessels” , Doug Anderson, Director, Sales and Marketing at Navico Asia Pacific explains, “so we recommended this system for the Sealegs vessel.”

The Simrad radar and Structurescan are integrated into the NSS 12-inch multifunction display that allows up to a four-way split screen providing a complete interface to all other on-board equipment including engine interface and AIS.

The Sealegs vessel will undergo sea trials and crew training in New Zealand for the next few months and she will then be shipped to Africa where the crew will monitor illegal fishing operations.

Click HERE for gCaptain’s review of Simrad’s broadband radars.