South Africa’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is 1 535 538  Km² and its diverse and rich marine ecology is an easy target for illegal fishing due to the difficulty in policing such an immense expanse. Large, illegal fishing vessels are able to hide in the deep ocean and remain undetected for months while stealing thousands of tons of the country’s fish.

Under a month ago, a large fishing vessel was detected in South Africa’s EEZ by a CSIR-developed technology. The technology is called SeaFAR and it utilises synthetic aperture radars, optical satellites and satellite automatic identification systems coupled with ‘clever algorithms’ to detect and identify vessels that exhibit suspicious behaviour.

In spite of the vessel’s inactive transponder, SeaFAR was able to detect it. A satellite overpass was tasked from the SeaFAR system to get imagery (a synthetic aperture radar scene). It continued to monitor the EEZ and detected the same vessel, with its transponders off.

“We are carefully monitoring the movements of this vessel and other foreign flagged fishing vessels,” says Dr Waldo Kleynhans, the inventor of SeaFAR. “We were able to match their Automatic Identifying System (AIS) tracks and by using prediction algorithms, we were able to anticipate where they might be when their AIS is turned off,” he says.

“And once we did all this, we were able to detect and locate the vessel using the synthetic aperture radar imagery, which does not rely on transponder messages,” he adds.

Contributing to Operation Phakisa

“We are able to monitor the EEZ in this manner,” says Lee Annamalai, the competence area manager where SeaFAR is being developed. “If they sail into our territory again, we will be on to them,” he states.

Annamalai is also the contract manager for the development of the Department of Environmental Affairs Oceans and Coasts Information Management System (OCIMS). The system is a component of the Phakisa Oceans Economy Programme and SeaFAR is one of the prioritised decision support tools for OCIMS

“We are exploring the export potential of the SeaFAR system. We already have an interest from several African coastal nations that are also combating illegal fishing in their EEZs,” concludes Annamalai.