Canada to help monitor vessels illegally fishing in PH waters

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 17) — The Philippines and Canada have forged an agreement for the use of Ottawa's dark vessel tracking system to detect ships illegally fishing in Manila's waters.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday said the deal signed on Oct. 12 covers the inclusion of the Philippine National Coast Watch Center (NCWC) in Canada's Dark Vessel Detection (DVD) System.

It was signed by Philippine Ambassador Maria Andrelita Austria and Assistant Deputy Minister Adam Burns of the Programs Sector of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) at the sidelines of the 6th Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation in Ottawa.

According to the DFA, the DVD System is «used to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUUF) by vessels who deliberately turn off their Automatic Identification System (AIS). It utilizes layered multi-sensor satellite data from both commercial and government-owned satellite assets to provide near real-time satellite imagery.»

This also incorporates historical vessel information, environmental data, and analytics for the conduct of analysis, it added.

The system will be jointly managed by the NCWC and Canada's DFO. It also aims to boost Manila's fight against IUUF and enhance its maritime domain awareness over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zones.

Canada is one of the countries supporting the landmark 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated China's expansive claims in the South China Sea.