UK to report ships with AIS turned off

[gdavydov]

Very good idea.
I saw on Atlantic passage few big freighters, ran by Indian (from India) crews, never bother turn on AIS. When we asked one of them, what is going on the officer of the watch (i think he was a second mate) told us: "We can see you on a radar. We do not need AIS to be turned on. We want to save some energy".

Freight cost in the world increased, because of crews from India get involved in too many ship wrecks. It was on internet last year.

[wjhutchings]

Originally Posted by gdavydov

They are talking about ships, not boats

Precisely basically boats do not need to carry them, there is no definition of boat the best I have heard is ships carry boats boats don't carry ships, with fishing vessels carrying AIS it is the owners choice if below 300GT if 300GT or over they must be GMDSS compliant for the area they sail in and therefore must carry AIS.

Personally as a grey grizzled mariner with more years at sea than I care to mention anything that stops me looking out of the window is bad

[James Mackey]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Presumably would only apply to boats **required** to have AIS in the first place.

I would only want myself if anonymity were possible.

Are the UK working to help the pirates throughout the world. There are many areas that you sail through to be safe you need to turn the AIS off.

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by James Mackey

Are the UK working to help the pirates throughout the world. There are many areas that you sail through to be safe you need to turn the AIS off.

Cruisers don’t have to have AIS so the UK doesn’t care either.

Big ships having to travel pirate waters are pretty well protected i think. Also, really big ships aren’t invisible with AIS turned off anyway.

I doubt the UK is too concerned with a few ships turning AIS off in relatively uncrowded waters.

So no, I am sure the UK isn’t trying to help pirates.

[wjhutchings]

Originally Posted by James Mackey

Are the UK working to help the pirates throughout the world. There are many areas that you sail through to be safe you need to turn the AIS off.

large ships do turn their AIS off in waters which are know areas for pirates, and yes one of the big failings of AIS is the fact that the sets are relatively inexpensive, you can buy receive only ones even cheaper, which gives pirates a marvellous return on their investment. The problem with AIS is the amount of information that can be placed in the transmission which gave the pirates a heads up as to which vessels were worth pirating and which weren't.

Of course now a days they only need a computer, a connection to the internet and pay a subscription to the various ship tracking web sites which will tell them the information days in advance via LRIT (Long range information and tracking) which is satellite base, which again most commercial vessels have to have when engaged on international voyages.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by James Mackey

Are the UK working to help the pirates throughout the world. There are many areas that you sail through to be safe you need to turn the AIS off.

Methinks you make the choice to sail there.. Not the UK.
I think its more about heavy traffic areas like the English Channel where collisions are too commonplace.

[wjhutchings]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Methinks you make the choice to sail there.. Not the UK.
I think its more about heavy traffic areas like the English Channel where collisions are too commonplace.

Boatman 6 I must disagree with your statement regarding collisions in the English Channel or if you are Francophile La Manche

I wouldn't like to even guess how many times I have transited the English Channel on large ships, small ships and yachts but I have never been involved in a collision or had one occur around me, same with the Singapore Strait though I must admit I have never been through there in a yacht. The only way to understand how to handle heavy traffic be it at sea or on land is actually immerse yourself in it, first time is scary to say the least but you will get used to it.

[john61ct]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/business-47046979

[jmschmidt]

They can report away to their little bureaucratic hearts content but they have no jurisdiction over any vessel outside of their territorial waters except UK flagged vessels.

[tarian]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

They can report away to their little bureaucratic hearts content but they have no jurisdiction over any vessel outside of their territorial waters except UK flagged vessels.

The Royal Navy like any Naval force can ask the permission of the flagged vessels home port or country of registration to board the vessel for , Piracy and illegal fishing etc, they can also via satellite follow the boat to the port and use influences there to stop the fish getting to market, and put pressure on that government to impound the vessel or you dont get Foreign Aid , its amazing how politics can work in mysteries ways and Embassies of the World

[john61ct]

Fish?

North Korean / Iran sanctions, illegal arms trading I think more likely targets

[tp12]

Illegal fishing is a huge problem so of course reporting boats without AIS will be used to protect fishing rights. It's a pretty hot topic in a lot of places.

[john61ct]

Maybe, but I doubt the system would have been budget justified for that use case.

[tp12]

There's no maybe about it; it's a big problem. It's even been discussed as part of the problem resolution for Somalian piracy to turn the pirates back into fisherman.

Edited to add: the article in the original post even mentions fishing and was quoted a few posts after:

"The satellite is equipped with a receiver that can pick up Automatic Identification System (AIS) radio signals. These are the positional transmissions that large ships are obliged to broadcast under international law. Vessels that tamper with or disable these messages very often are engaged in smuggling or illegal fishing activity. If such ships appear in NovaSAR's radar pictures, they will be reported to the authorities

[john61ct]

I was not saying illegal fishing is not a huge problem.