Vessel monitoring system
It is not to be confused with VTS which is describes the specific application of monitoring marine traffic primarily for safety and efficiency in ports and busy waterways.
The most basic function of a VMS is to determine the vessel's location at a given time, and periodically transmit this information, to a monitoring station ashore.
In practice, many of the VMS components also have applicability, along with non-VMS marine electronics, to a wide range of functions aboard a fishing vessel.
Selecting a VMS system is most dependent on what vendors and models have been approved by the fishing vessel's state of registry and the functionality requirements.
Individual regional, national, and international FMCs have different levels of software intelligence, which can detect patterns of interest to SAR, fisheries management, or law enforcement.
A full search and rescue (SAR) operation should not be launched simply because a VMS report does not arrive, although it is reasonable to alert sea surveillance assets, such as radars, that might be able to find the vessel.
While the procedure will vary with the jurisdiction, if an at-sea vessel finds their VMS is not working and they cannot fix it, they may be able to contact the FMC and get permission to continue the voyage.
The flag state VMS architecture is used, where the national FMCs of vessel registry, starting in 2005, transmit to the CCAMLR regional FMC.
Member states under the agreement are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, European Community, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, and Uruguay.
In order to coordinate the policy making and enforcement efforts the EFCA - European Fisheries Control Agency in Vigo, Spain has been established.
Under this agreement are all fisheries, principally trawl and longline, except crab, lobster, salmon, sedentary species, whale and tuna.
[33] The North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC)[26] has five Contracting Parties, Denmark (in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland), the European Union, Iceland, Norway and the Russian Federation.
This Convention (1980) regulates fisheries in the high seas (Regulatory Area) and waters under national jurisdiction, including trawlers, purse seiners, longliners, and gill netters.
NEAFC is a secondary user of data receiving it from flag state FMCs; the NEAFC database connects to national FMCs of Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, France, Faroe Islands, United Kingdom, Greenland, Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Sweden and the European Fisheries Control Agency.
NEAFC decided, based on the results of the EU-funded IMPAST (Improving Fisheries Monitoring By Integrating Passive and Active Satellite Technologies), to deploy a Vessel Detection System (VDS) in several coastal states.
While the FFA proper was formed over 20 years ago, VMS operation began in late 1997, covering the EEZs of 16 South Pacific countries.
Fisheries are a major component of the economies of the coastal member states of the SADC (Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Mauritius and Seychelles).
The Vessel Monitoring System run by AFMA is provided by Trackwell Fisheries of interest include orange roughy, scallops, prawns, tuna and billfish.
The underlying MCS strategies, while differing in specific fisheries, are based on limited entry licensing, with restrictions on vessel and gear types.
Canada intends to provide, in real time, VMS data, correlated with other sensors and database information, to patrol vessels and aircraft.
When you see a series of circular positions, they are all at speeds of below 2 knots (4 km/h) and reflect the drift of the current—there is no question, that vessel was purse seining, and the printout of the chart can be shown to the court to demonstrate the fact.
[43] Other fisheries of interest include alfonsino, anchovies, cod, cuttlefish, hake, mackerel, ray, sardines, sea bream, squid, and swordfish.
[48] Implementing its FMC at the CROSS sea rescue center at Etel, France uses the flag state principle described under Norway.
[54] A framework for groundfish fisheries in the Northwest Pacific's high seas was established in January 2007 in a consultation involving Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
[59] New Zealand has been running VMS since April 1994, with coverage out to the EEZ border under national and state agencies, with a target of 1000 vessels reporting every 2 hours.
[62] For research, safety and monitoring purposes, vessels have the statutory obligation to use VMS, with industrial-scale fishing prohibited within 5 nautical miles (9 km) from the coast.
The system is operated 24/7 by Havs- och vattenmyndigheten (The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management) and monitors all fishing vessels >= 12 m LoA.
In addition, electronic logbook requirements are defined thus: catch and effort recording in 'real time' but as a minimum every 24hrs whilst a fishing vessel is at sea.
The VMS Plus device has its own internal GPS used for position reporting and therefore is a useful cross referencing tool enabling fishing authorities to cross reference VMS positional data with other sources of positional data such as electronic logbooks; • Separate access to communication services in the device, for other on-board systems, which as a minimum allow an on-board system using any UK fishing authority approved E-logbook Software to transmit E-logbook reports to, and receive acknowledgements from the UK fishing authorities.
Tunisian fisheries department have developed a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) based on GPS position measurement and INMARSAT-C satellite communications.
