BRAMPTON, ON, Feb. 24, 2021 /CNW/ - MDA today announced that it has been awarded a three-year contract with the Government of Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Defence Research and Development Canada to use satellite technology to detect vessels engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The contract will run for a period of three years.

The Dark Vessel Detection (DVD) program uses satellite technology to locate and track vessels that have switched off their location transmitting devices in an attempt to evade monitoring, control and surveillance.

The DVD program will combine data from multiple satellite missions, including MDA's RADARSAT-2, combined with space-based radio frequency collection and geo-spectrum analysis to assist in locating vessels involved in illegal fishing. MDA's advanced analytics, multi-sensor data fusion platform and expertise in maritime domain awareness will support the international community to combat the challenges facing our oceans and environment.

The DVD program will provide satellite data and analysis to the Government of Canada in support of Ecuador – including surveillance around the Galapagos Islands.  This program will also support the Forum Fisheries Agency, which represents 15 Pacific Island member states in the South Pacific.

In a related initiative, last August, a team comprised of MDA, VizworX and Simon Fraser University was selected by the Digital Technology Supercluster for the Cycle 3 Protecting Our Oceans project in the Supercluster's Technology Leadership Program. The team aims to develop a solution that will recognize vessels that fish illegally, deter and blacklist them and ultimately prosecute the owners to protect our global fisheries and marine ecosystems. Technology developed through this program may further enhance MDA's maritime platform offering to better enable our customers to protect the environment, food supply chains, jobs provided by the ocean, and help deliver information to increase border security and tackle human rights violations. 

QUOTES

"MDA looks forward to working with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to deliver this important project that will help Canada contribute to international efforts aimed at combatting illegal fishing. Successful delivery of this project will also position MDA to provide ocean based information as a service to other customers wishing to better and more efficiently monitor and protect their waters and sustain the ocean economy."

– Mike Greenley, Chief Executive Officer, MDA

LINKS

www.mda.space 
https://www.digitalsupercluster.ca/programs/data-commons/protecting-our-oceans/ 

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ABOUT MDA

Serving the world from its Canadian home and global offices, MDA is an international space mission partner and a robotics, satellite systems and geointelligence pioneer with a 50-year story of firsts on and above the Earth. With over 2,000 employees across Canada, the US and the UK, MDA is leading the charge towards viable Moon colonies, enhanced Earth observation, communication in a hyper-connected world, and more. With a track record of making space ambitions come true, MDA enables highly skilled people to continually push boundaries, tackle big challenges, and imagine solutions that inspire and endure to change the world for the better, on the ground and in the stars. www.MDA.space

SOURCE MDA Inc.