Is Big Brother on the High Seas?

Let's face it, most of us value independence (we're not that far from our teenage progeny). We like being able to move freely, unrestrained, the world, or at least our little chunk of it, our oyster. We boaters certainly enjoy being able to cruise wherever, whenever, however.


But herein may lie a dilemma, so let's go back a bit.  Three years ago I posted an introductory description of the Automatic Identification System (AIS), a great system which identified and shows vessels on your navigation plotter, not by line-of-sight radar, but by radio transmission. Quite different than radar, being radio AIS can "see"  behind hills and around corners and show the vessel  on your plotter. Required of all vessels over 300 gross tons and certain high-speed yachts, AIS transmits the location, heading, speed, cargo, and destination of the vessel. While AIS transmitters are not yet required of recreation boats, many of us have AIS receivers so that we can receive these AIS transmissions (and have them appear on our navigation plotters). For a fuller description go to my January 2008 posting.


Then this past January I posted a description of an expanded world-wide fun use of the AIS showing vessels all over the world, where they were heading, at what speed, etc., a very creative project of the University of the Aegean, in Mytilene, Greece.


Quite frankly, I'm pretty long on this collision avoidance system


Now comes Ralph Naranjo, noted technical editor of Practical Sailor, around-the-world sailor, safe-boating advocate, and former Vanderstar Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy, raising the issue: Is the AIS chipping away at our freedom?


Naranjo points out in Practical Sailor that that AIS system is also the foundation of the Department of Homeland Security's vessel-tracking system run by the US Coast Guard. Dubbed the National Automatic Identification System (NAIS), security seems to be at the top of the list of objectives, according to Naranjo. He quotes a directive, "AIS data is combined with other government intelligence and surveillance information to form a holistic, over-arching view of marine traffic . . . detecting anomalies, monitoring suspicious vessels, and pinpointing the location of potential threats."


While compulsory AIS transmission by recreational vessels is at best in the distant future (remember that with deregulations of years ago no longer are recreational vessels is US waters required even to have VHF radios aboard!), the notion of AIS "surveillance" does conjure up some concerns, at least some disturbances. Of course such monitoring is de rigor for airplane pilots, commercial as well as recreational, but we're boaters. . . .


Big brother? Orwell's 1984? Privacy issues? Freedom of the Seas? Want to weigh in on this?  Simply click "comments" at the end of this posting and have at it.


You'll find Ralph Naranjo's complete article on Practical Sailor.

Illustration courtesy of Practical Sailor