PMAR, Piracy, Maritime Awareness & Risks : trial implementation under MASE

During one year, from September 2014 to September 2015, the PMAR-MASE project has produced the real-time traffic picture of the reporting ships (that use the AIS or LRIT automatic position reporting system) over the entire Western Indian Ocean, and delivered it via a web viewer to two authorities in Africa with a regional maritime security responsibility: the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Indian Ocean Commission in the Seychelles, and the Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of the Kenya Maritime Authority in Mombasa. In addition, monthly ship density maps have been produced, and a number of satellite images have been analysed to assess the presence of non-reporting ships. The purpose of the project was familiarisation of maritime authorities in the Eastern-Southern Africa / Indian Ocean region with region-wide maritime monitoring, providing hands-on experience, and developing an understanding of what kind of information level is attainable and how to use the information. This report discusses the activities done under the project, the data that were used, the system design, the processing that was done, the visits to the region, the user feedback, and the performance of the system. The PMAR approach is based on the fusion of AIS and LRIT data from several sources, with satellite AIS being the most valuable data type, supplemented by a limited number of satellite SAR images. It is concluded that this approach provides a very powerful tool for region-wide maritime awareness, to which the authorities can avail themselves via commercial services.