Satellite images used to track illegal fishing successfully used in court case

Images from DigitalGlobe were used to track illegal fishing and provided evidence in court to support the seizure of a Thai vessel suspected of illegal fishing and labour abuses by the Indonesian Navy.  Indonesia has won a two-year court case that confirms the legality of the Indonesian Navy’s seizure of a Thai vessel linked to human trafficking and illegal fishing in Indonesian waters.

The vessel intentionally turned off the automatic identification system (AIS) that among other things allowed the ship’s location to be tracked. The vessel, the Silver Sea 2, was identified from DigitalGlobe satellite images when it was in Papua New Guinea waters, receiving illegal Indonesian catch from two fishing trawlers in a process known as transshipment. It was captured by an Indonesian Navy vessel off the island of Sumatra after returning to Indonesian waters.

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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