Planet Labs has partnered with SynMax, a Houston-based satellite analytics and intelligence company, to provide a new service monitoring the movements of ‘dark vessels’ around the globe.
Founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists, Planet operates an Earth observation fleet of approximately 200 imaging satellites, capturing over 30 TB of data per day.
SynMax will use its artificial intelligence technology combined with Planet’s satellite data to support maritime tracking of illegal fishing, illicit ship-to-ship transfers, and vessel spoofing via a new vessel tracking product called Project Theia.
The firms say the will offer the service to customers like vessel operators, maritime insurance companies and hedge funds that are interested in clandestine commodity flows, to allow them to discover, monitor, and investigate dark vessels operating all over the globe.
“SynMax has found that it can discover in-mass maritime vessels all over the world that are not transponding their locations using, in part, Planet’s daily imagery,” said SynMax CEO Brendan Moore, a former UK intelligence officer.
