The HawkEye 360 satellite operator has signed an agreement with the Australian government to help combat illegal fishing. Their orbiters are designed to track radio signals on the Earth’s surface.
HawkEye 360 will catch poachers
On July 6, it became known that HawkEye 360 signed an agreement with the Australian government and the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency to help combat illegal fishing. Satellites placed in orbit will greatly help them in this.
HawkEye 360 demonstrated its capabilities at the very beginning of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Then it was its devices that helped to determine that the aggressor’s troops had jammed GPS signals in Belarus before the attack.
In total, the company now has 21 satellites in orbit. They are combined into triples that move together to form a triangle configuration. This configuration allows them to determine not only the exact position of its source on the surface by the delay of the signal, but also to characterize it.
How the satellite will look for poachers
The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency has been tracking illegal use of marine resources since 1979. It tries in every possible way to reduce the harm that poachers cause to the environment. However, so far it has not been able to finally defeat them.
All vessels in the world’s oceans must be equipped with transmitting equipment that allows them to be tracked and identified. Therefore, theoretically, poachers could easily be caught. However, they simply turn off their equipment for the duration of fishing.
However, they cannot simply refuse to transmit radio signals. And that’s what the satellites will be looking for. Comparing their data with the signals received by tracking systems, specialists will calculate vessels that for some reason hide their location. It is likely that they are engaged in some kind of illegal activity.
According to spacenews.com
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