IPA III - Surveillance
EMSA provides maritime surveillance services to enhance the EU’s geospatial data pool. This is achieved by managing the sourcing and day-to-day operations of the Earth Observation information flow from satellites, through the provision of Automatic Identification System information detected by land (T-AIS) and satellites (SAT-AIS).
The main systems offered by the Agency are CleanSeaNet, the European oil spill detection and monitoring service, and Copernicus Maritime Surveillance, which provides satellite imagery-based services to support a better understanding and improved monitoring of activities at sea, within a wide range of operational functions such as maritime safety and security, fisheries control, customs, law enforcement, marine environment pollution monitoring, and others.
In addition, Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) or Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Information Systems (VTMIS) enable the identification and monitoring of vessels and provide an overview of their movement in selected sea areas. This provides the authorities of coastal States with the ability to monitor and manage the traffic in their waters as well as to anticipate and prevent potential incidents and, as a last resort, to intervene, minimising the loss of life and property and damage to the marine environment.
To ensure the improved capacity of the IPA Beneficiaries to monitor maritime traffic, the Agency will provide it support in the following areas:
- support to transpose EU legislation related to maritime surveillance;
- regional cooperation on sharing T-AIS information;
- provision of SAT-AIS information;
- participation in EMSA’s work through involvement in technical meetings organised for EU Member States as relevant;
