It was announced on 21 June that exactEarth Europe Limited, a UK subsidiary of exactEarth Ltd, a leading provider of Satellite AIS data services, recently successfully concluded the main part of its South Africa Safety Initiative for Small Vessels (OASIS) project – a small vessel tracking trial with the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), part-funded by the UK Space Agency (UKSA) under its International Partnership Space Programme (IPSP).

A key aspect of SAMSA’s mandate is to ensure safety of life at sea, including small vessels in the fisheries, leisure marine and workboat sectors. These vessels, particularly artisanal fishing boats, typically operate without a tracking system onboard, making it difficult for the authorities to locate them if they are involved in an accident at sea. With IPSP funding, exactEarth Europe and its IPSP partners SRT Marine Technology (SRT – UK) and Marine Data Solutions (MDSol – South Africa), were able to carry out extensive sea trials in South Africa of their cost effective Advanced Class B Satellite Enabled AIS (ABSEA) Identifier – designed specifically to support long and short range small vessel tracking.