A Model for the Identification of Anomalous Fishing Vessels Using Data Association and Route Prediction Techniques

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a major global issue, costing up to £23 billion in the global economy per year [1]. Although the detection of vessels using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Automatic Identification System (AIS) data has gained a lot of attention in recent years, the identification of illegal activities still remains largely unaddressed. This paper presents a model for the detection and identification of anomalous AIS shut-offs and transhipments around the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) at Mauritius as part of the NEREUS project of the University of Surrey. The model combines, in a novel way, various techniques established in literature that consist of target detection in SAR images, vessel classification, construction and extrapolation of vessel tracklines using AIS data and AIS-SAR data association. The proposed model is preliminarily validated using NovaSAR data, as proof of concept, with varied results, that recommend for a change in the detection block.