Feasibility study on Mexico’s next Vessel Monitoring System
- Paper ID
20697
- author
- company
Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM);
- country
Mexico
- year
2014
- abstract
One of the most severe environmental problems that Mexico faces is the depletion of marine species population in its seas and oceans. The main reasons for this are: global warming, pollution, over exploitation and illegal fisheries. The purpose of this research is to determine the feasibility of implementing a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) in conjunction with the Mexican Early Warning System (MEWS), in which infrared satellite imagery will be available, to prevent overfishing in the country. Sea images in thermal infrared provide information about the accumulation of biomass in certain areas due to ocean currents. That being said, it is possible to develop an algorithm to detect the biomass nucleus called “ocean eddies” from the infrared MEWS images to identify zones where fishing might take place. This information in addition to a VMS, would make possible to identify illegal fishing and assure the security of protected zones by the government. In addition, a study to have a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) embedded in the VMS satellite is taking place, thus the detection of clandestine and unregistered vessels will be at hand. This will make Mexico be self-sufficient and at the state of the art in the matter of vessel detection and fishing control. Some of the criteria and considerations to determine an appropriate VMS are: health of fisheries and its habitats, compliance with regulations, high costs of technology, high precision data is required, immediate need of data, geographic distribution of fisheries, fishing industry point of view, public perception of the industry, safety/security at sea, system costs, among others. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) the approximate costs of a single VMS for approximately 400 vessel are around USD \$1 million. At this initial stage it is calculated an investment of minimum \$500,000 USD from the government and the entities in charge of fishing control and protection of the environment in Mexico (INAPESCA, SAGARPA, SEMARNAT, etc.). This project will be led by the Mexican Space Agency with collaboration of several universities and institutes throughout the country.