Maritime Reporting Systems

In recent years, numerous maritime systems track vessels while travelling across the oceans. Ship reporting systems are used to provide, gather or exchange information through radio reports. This information is used to provide data for multiple purposes including search and rescue, vessel traffic services, prevention of marine pollution and many more. In reality though researchers and scientists are finding out that these data sets provide a new set of possibilities for improving our understanding of what is happening or might be happening at sea. This chapter provides an introduction to the main vessel reporting systems available today, while discussing some of their shortcomings and strong points. In this context, several applications and potential uses are described.