To identify even small artisanal fishing vessels along the coastline as well as bigger offshore going fishing vessels is the high goal. Authorities need to have reliable position reports of every member of the fleet. What are, at the end the requirements and how to fulfill these?

A Low-Cost Vessel Tracker must be high reliable and sustain which works on AIS principles. It would be perfect also, if the possibility to set customized frequencies is given in case of authorities want to make “closed” user groups.

A must should be that the unit is completely equipped with the VHF (AIS) radio antenna and GPS receiver in one compact package. Further important requests of Fisherman are:

• Main unit mounted 1-2m above sea level
• Out of the way of fisherman/user/pleasure boat captain, but achievable in case of emergency
• Antenna height guaranteed – results in long range
• Equipment must be LOW Cost
• No monthly recurring costs
• No subscription
• No cost per message
• Radiated power of at least 3W so that minimum range is guarantied
• Battery powered where power on boat is not available or only from time to time
• Long battery life time if no power from boat
• Variable reporting rates
• Autonomous reporting
• Alert reporting
• Separate ALERT button
• Geofences

A lot of countries around the world did several functionality and transmission range tests and decided to use the vmsTRACK-PRO system, as the system does fulfill all the above stated requests. Face to face performance tests done from market follower devices by these authorities pointed out that the vmsTRACK-PRO is on pole position combining reliable high quality technology with a huge range of useful features and the best performance.

Weatherdock wants to support third world countries to export their fish catches into European Union without getting blacklisted because of IUU. By means of persistent position reporting and route data storage the fishing vessels are able to document where and when the catch was done.

Geo-Fencing and additional “push-to-alert” button

Special areas of non-entering or non-leaving can be programmed easily into every vmsTRACK-PRO unit which is placed aboard the fishing vessel. Additional to all the tracking functionality there is a “push-to-alert” button which increases the safety of the fishermen especially on the small artisanal vessels. In event of pushing the alert button a AIS MOB safety message is send out into the standardized AIS traffic system that every vessel in the vicinity of the victim is able to help as fast as possible.

The German Weatherdock AG is going to present these many times proven units during the SMM Trade Show coming up in Hamburg, Germany from September 4^th to 7^th. The company is located at B6-405 with its own booth to demonstrate functionality and advantages over competitors.