Minister promotes E-Navigation

Shipping Minister Stephen Ladyman has today set out how the

can make the most from the technology offered by Automatic Identification System (AIS) to underpin electronic navigation and facilitate a safer, modern shipping industry.

The Department for Transport has published a strategy which details the areas where AIS technology could bring significant benefits beyond its primary function of monitoring ship movements, and how the data it provides could open some commercial revenue opportunities to offset its own running costs.

AIS is a radio-based ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore system that can identify and track the movement of ships up to 30 miles out from the UK's coastline. Large ships, those of 300 gross tonnage or more, have been required by the International Maritime Organisation to have had an AIS system installed for tracking purposes since 2004.

However, the technology behind AIS has the potential to offer an even broader range of services. It could provide more responsive and lower-cost Aids to Navigation (AtoN) and assist Search and Rescue services and Counter Pollution activity. It could also build a comprehensive database of shipping movements along the coastline.