The Advantages Of Tracking To Avoid Ship Collision

By A. Penz

For many years, the allure of going to sea was the ability to cast off and get away from everything. It has, however, become necessary and quite useful in recent years to be able to track vessels so as to avoid ship collision and always know where each vessel was at any given time. The high stakes associated with incidents and the demand for greater efficiencies in transportation systems all around the world have led to the technology that makes it possible for ships to be tracked whenever they are out to sea.

Though these tracking technologies were slow in coming for the maritime community, they are finally here and being used everyday. The maritime community now has a way to track ships through the use of new satellite communications.

Vessel tracking has become more important all over the world than ever before. Now that purposeful ship collision has become a concern and a definite possibility in the wake of fairly recent events, a need has arisen for all vessels to be traceable while they are out on the sea. Now AIS, or Automatic Identification Systems are installed along with long range tracking devices to aid in providing the necessary information on in-bound maritime shipping long before the ships reach port.

The concerns brought about by various events have also lead to a series of both U.S. and International treaties and regulations that were put in place in an effort to bolster security. Maritime Organization passed the International Ship and Port Facility Security code that now requires a suite of enhanced security measures. They include the installation of world wide satellite tracking equipment along with ship security alert systems. Along with these systems for ship collision tracking is a line of site VHF radio vessel tracking devices to aid in monitoring the present positions of vessels at any given time. These devices are also able to monitor past port calls and transits, thus making this tracking system a thorough one that is widely used everywhere.

As technology continues to evolve, so will the devices used to monitor the location of ships in order to prevent unnecessary collisions planned or otherwise.

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