Satellite Tracking Moves to Ships

The greatest users of the Global Positioning System (GPS) are within the aviation industry. A close second are ocean going vessels, whose reliance on positioning is probably more crucial, having almost no visual cues to know their location while sitting on the ocean’s surface. The GPS system allows people to know their exact position on the earth, and with recent advances, to well within 10 meters given ideal conditions.

Generally, such a system is passive, using a receiver to pick up the vergence of signals from a constellation of satellites in orbit. However, if one were required to obtain a system that not only received but also transmitted signals, the system could be tracked by satellite quite easily.

The watchful eye of government is now turning to the sea in the form of such GPS transmitters. Promised to usher in a new era of security and safety, there will soon be a mandatory tracking system imposed on all commercial vessels travelling the St. Lawrence Seaway. Operation of the St. Lawrence is jointly controlled by the United States and Canada, and connects the Atlantic Ocean to all of the Great Lakes via 1,400 miles of river, utilizing locks. It is a major channel of commerce with dozens of major ports, allowing such cities as Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Montreal, and Toledo access to the sea.

The Seaway’s new system, called the Automatic Vessel Identification System (AIS), is now in final testing and will be deployed at the beginning of the 2003 navigation season. Hailed as a new era of security and safety, the system will offer unprecedented government control over the channel from three tracking stations, and will be able to know the position of every ship in every kind of weather. It will offer better ship-to-ship communications as well, allowing ships to more easily avoid collisions.

Though this system has been in the making for about a decade, one must wonder if the process was not recently pushed along. Millions of cargo containers entering U.S. ports go uninspected, sending jitters up the spines of governments sworn to protect their citizens against whatever nasty items might be smuggled inside them. The only way to prevent weapons of mass destruction or terrorists themselves from entering the country via this channel is to put a strict hold on all container ships leaving or entering.

We are far from such across-the-board inspection; currently only 2% of such containers are inspected. But this trial run on the St. Lawrence will serve as an example, and the methods will likely be broadened in the future. There is currently a proposal pending before the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) to put in place a new system that will track all vessels worldwide by 2008. The United States recently asked the UN to bump it up to January 2004, but met with resistance.

While imposing such broad inspections commercial traffic is probably a good idea to safeguard our vulnerable ports, we must once again bring up the question of “function creep,” or the evolution of a good idea into a monstrously larger bad one.

Once active satellite tracking of all ocean vessels is put into place and increases the effectiveness of security dozens of times over, the technology may move to land-based shipping and transportation, such as commercial trucks and buses. After all, in these times of terror, trucks are readily inspected at the entrances to major bridges and tunnels. Wouldn’t it be nice to divert those resources somewhere else and let a computer alert us to when an unregistered truck tries to cross a major thoroughfare?

And wouldn’t we all be safer if we had the government looking after private citizens with a mandatory satellite-based vehicle tracking system? Such early adopters already have such systems in their Cadillacs, which allow authorities to know exactly where you are in the event of an emergency.




	<< Back to Main Page December 2002 Satellite Tracking Moves to Ships Satellite Tracking Moves to Ships The greatest users of the Global Positioning System (GPS) are within the aviation industry. A close second are ocean going vessels, whose reliance on positioning is probably more crucial, having almost no visual cues to know their location while sitting on the ocean’s surface. The GPS system allows people to know their exact position on the earth, and with recent advances, to well within 10 meters given ideal conditions. Generally, such a system is passive, using a receiver to pick up the vergence of signals from a constellation of satellites in orbit. However, if one were required to obtain a system that not only received but also transmitted signals, the system could be tracked by satellite quite easily. The watchful eye of government is now turning to the sea in the form of such GPS transmitters. Promised to usher in a new era of security and safety, there will soon be a mandatory tracking system imposed on all commercial vessels travelling the St. Lawrence Seaway. Operation of the St. Lawrence is jointly controlled by the United States and Canada, and connects the Atlantic Ocean to all of the Great Lakes via 1,400 miles of river, utilizing locks. It is a major channel of commerce with dozens of major ports, allowing such cities as Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Montreal, and Toledo access to the sea. The Seaway’s new system, called the Automatic Vessel Identification System (AIS), is now in final testing and will be deployed at the beginning of the 2003 navigation season. Hailed as a new era of security and safety, the system will offer unprecedented government control over the channel from three tracking stations, and will be able to know the position of every ship in every kind of weather. It will offer better ship-to-ship communications as well, allowing ships to more easily avoid collisions. Though this system has been in the making for about a decade, one must wonder if the process was not recently pushed along. Millions of cargo containers entering U.S. ports go uninspected, sending jitters up the spines of governments sworn to protect their citizens against whatever nasty items might be smuggled inside them. The only way to prevent weapons of mass destruction or terrorists themselves from entering the country via this channel is to put a strict hold on all container ships leaving or entering. We are far from such across-the-board inspection; currently only 2% of such containers are inspected. But this trial run on the St. Lawrence will serve as an example, and the methods will likely be broadened in the future. There is currently a proposal pending before the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) to put in place a new system that will track all vessels worldwide by 2008. The United States recently asked the UN to bump it up to January 2004, but met with resistance. While imposing such broad inspections commercial traffic is probably a good idea to safeguard our vulnerable ports, we must once again bring up the question of “function creep,” or the evolution of a good idea into a monstrously larger bad one. Once active satellite tracking of all ocean vessels is put into place and increases the effectiveness of security dozens of times over, the technology may move to land-based shipping and transportation, such as commercial trucks and buses. After all, in these times of terror, trucks are readily inspected at the entrances to major bridges and tunnels. Wouldn’t it be nice to divert those resources somewhere else and let a computer alert us to when an unregistered truck tries to cross a major thoroughfare? And wouldn’t we all be safer if we had the government looking after private citizens with a mandatory satellite-based vehicle tracking system? Such early adopters already have such systems in their Cadillacs, which allow authorities to know exactly where you are in the event of an emergency. Further reading: Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway System: http://www.greatlakes-seaway.com/ Eye for Transport: http://www.eyefortransport.com/ << Back to Main Page