Specialist marine identification and tracking technology firm SRT Marine Systems has landed a £31m contract with the government of the Philippines to supply it with a pioneering coastal protection and environmental monitoring system to clamp down on illegal fishing.
Under the contract – one of the largest in the world – thousands of fishing boats and other vessels of all sizes will be monitored via on-board transceivers and monitoring sensors.
The announcement of the deal triggered a 12 per cent-plus increase in the share price of Midsomer Norton-based SRT.
The London Stock Exchange-listed firm had previously bid for the contract only to be told it had been cancelled due to budget changes by the Philippine’s government.
However, SRT was later asked to retender for the project, which it won.
The four-year contract will have two main phases – the supply and commissioning of all the equipment and systems to be supplied by SRT.
This includes an extensive network of monitoring sensors, data centres, monitoring centres, and 5,000 vessel transceivers and is expected to take up to 18 months to complete. Phase two is the ongoing operational support and continuous supply of satellite data sourced from a variety of satellite constellations.
The system will enable the Philippine’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to continuously and efficiently track, monitor and manage the activities of fishing vessels without range limitation and comply with international, regional and national regulations. It will boost the country’s detection of illegal, unregulated and unlicensed fishing, electronic fish catch reporting, auditing and certification, license management, vessel ELOG system, and a range of advanced analytic tools.
SRT CEO Simon Tucker said: “This is will be one of the world’s most sophisticated and largest VMS (vessel monitoring system) fisheries systems.
“We believe that our unique localised system architecture, which gives full control over all systems to the customer in country, combined with proven performance, integrated functionality and low long term operating costs, coupled with SRT’s experience in large scale vessel tracking and identification system deployment were a defining advantage.
“The system we are providing under this contract will provide BFAR with a future-proof platform which can be further expanded from the initial requirement of 5,000 of their largest vessels to include their tens of thousands of medium and small fishing boats, as well as seamless integration with other relevant maritime authorities.”
SRT develops, manufactures and supplies maritime vessel tracking technology to marine stakeholders across the globe. Its products are used by individual vessel owners, port authorities, maritime infrastructure owners, coast guards and national security agencies to enhance their maritime domain awareness.
Applications include tracking commercial and leisure vessels, sustainable fishery, anti-collision, search and rescue, waterway management, port and coast security, pollution management, and environmental management.
