evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

MIMRA's Starboard AI Maritime Surveillance Unmasks the Sun Flower 7 — Marshall Islands Blocks a $7.4M Illegal Tuna Landing

Marshall Islands · Majuro · See the Marshall Islands profile · See the Majuro profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 32% 67/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

MIMRA fisheries officers used Starboard Maritime Intelligence's AI vessel-behaviour analytics to flag the carrier Sun Flower 7's suspicious track inside Kiribati's EEZ, leading Thailand to block a ~$7.4M tuna landing and South Korea to fine the operator ~$150,000 in 2023.

7.4 USD million
Illegal tuna landing blocked (estimated value) (2022-2023)
~4,000 metric tonnes
Tuna volume involved
~150,000 USD (KRW 200 million)
Fine imposed on vessel operator (June 2023)
MIMRA's Starboard AI Maritime Surveillance Unmasks the Sun Flower 7 — Marshall Islands Blocks a $7.4M Illegal Tuna Landing

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority (MIMRA)
Period
2022-2023
Keywords
fisheries enforcement, maritime domain awareness, IUU fishing, satellite AIS analytics

Context

Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority adopted Starboard Maritime Intelligence's AI-based maritime domain awareness platform in 2022, funded in part through New Zealand's MFAT-supported fisheries advisory programme, fusing AIS tracking with satellite imagery and custom detection algorithms.

Activities

In late 2022 the platform's behavioural analytics flagged unusual track patterns from the South Korean-flagged carrier Sun Flower 7, which appeared to be retrieving drifting fish-aggregating devices inside Kiribati's exclusive economic zone in apparent violation of its licence.

Results

Thai port authorities blocked the vessel from landing an estimated ~4,000 metric tonnes of tuna worth roughly US$7.4 million, and in June 2023 South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries fined the operator approximately US$150,000.

Conclusions

This is a single documented enforcement success rather than a systematic evaluation of detection accuracy across MIMRA's full surveillance workload.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
MIMRA fisheries advisers and investigators

Conditions for success

  • Continued satellite-imagery access
  • Coordination with flag-state and port authorities

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful