Cape Town - South Africa may soon have a more effective means of protecting territorial waters from illegal fishers.
On Friday, the CSIR or Council for Scientific and Industrial Research announced a partnership with Space Commercial Services Holdings Aerospace Group (SCSH) to develop a wide-area maritime synthetic aperture radar (SAR).
The radar system should augment the work of Samsa (the South African Maritime Safety Authority) which conducts real-time monitoring of the South African maritime environment.
SAR should give the country’s authorities a better tool to ensure that illegal fishers are identified so that they can be arrested.
While Samsa has an extensive surveillance system for monitoring the ocean from Somalia on the east coast of Africa all the way to Nigeria on the west, the system is designed to identify large ships which are obligated to carry satellite transponders.
Direct action
Experience has shown that some unscrupulous operators switch off these transponders when they engage in illegal fishing or conduct oil dumping in the ocean.
The vulnerability of the South African coast was demonstrated in 1983 when the Castillo de Bellver oil tanker caught fire and broke up, spilling around two million barrels of oil.
But while authorities may be able to observe acts that may endanger South African territorial waters, there are challenges in being able to take direct action.
"I suppose it depends on where and when - you might just be fortunate that you have assets close by, but I think all our assets are quite short in being able to respond," Karl Otto, former executive head at the Centre for Sea Watch and Response at Samsa told Fin24 recently.
SA has a young but rich space industry. The country recently conducted a launch of a micro satellite in a programme managed by students at the French South African Institute of Technology (F'SATI) located at CPUT campus in Bellville.
The programme is supported by the South African National Space Agency (Sansa) and the department of science and technology.
The 1.2kg satellite is a training platform and helps scientists understand how the sun interacts with the Earth's magnetic field.
"The market for micro satellites is a growing one as it offers the development of engineering and scientific skill as well as the opportunity for scientific research," Sansa CEO Dr Sandile Malinga told Fin24 at the time.
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