The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) will issue a tender for the procurement of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to assist with its data and information gathering efforts and the intention to expand its range of unmanned capabilities in the future.
The UAS will be utilised for monitoring emissions within the maritime industry and to oversee fishing vessel activity. With the ability to provide images and 24/7 coverage, the drone tender will be the first one to be put out by the organisation, which currently gathers data on ship safety issues, AIS monitoring, pollution observation and port security through four data hubs across Europe.
Announced at the Offshore Patrol and Surveillance conference on April 20, Markku Mylly, EMSA Executive Director, revealed that a tender had been signed the previous week to help with data gathering to monitor the environment initially, with the intention of multi-purpose operations in the future.
The system also supports the new Port State Control (PSC) inspection regime that monitors maritime affairs in the European Union (EU) and the wider region of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on PSC which includes Canada, Iceland, Norway and the Russian Federation.
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