Vessel Monitoring Systems
The vessel monitoring system (VMS) is a satellite-based fishing vessel monitoring system providing data to the fisheries authorities at regular intervals on the location, course and speed of vessels.

Applications

• Fisheries management

Among the most basic purposes is to monitor the movement of VMS-equipped vessels with respect to restricted fishing areas. A given vessel may have approval to fish in a restricted area, to transit through it without fishing, or it may not be allowed in the area.

• Catch on entry
• Weekly catch
• Transshipment
• Port of landing
• Catch on exit

Fisheries research and analysis

• Safety

  VMS itself can help in search and rescue (SAR), especially when the SAR organization participates in the Global Maritime Distress Safety System(GMDSS). Some VMS have built-in Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB), or SART capability although a dedicated VMS unit may not be able to have an emergency beacon that automatically floats to the surface and starts transmitting when it detects it is in salt water. At the very least, the SAR agency can get a last reported location of the vessel, and perhaps its course, from the FMC.

• Enforcement

VMS obviously is part of fisheries enforcement, but, along with other systems, it can be part of overall sea surveillance. When a radar or other sensor detects a given vessel, VMS can tell the center that monitors the radar whether the radar target is a known fishing vessel. There may be correlation between AIS/VTS and VMS.

VTS

These are specific safety and traffic management systems which generally do not include specific fishery functionality as required by VMS.

AIS

AIS is often confused as a system comparable to VMS or VTS. AIS is a communications technology which is normally used within VTS and VMS applications. AIS is typically used on VMS systems deployed on smaller fishing vessels under 60tons. The implementation of AIS as part of these systems is also often customized to include encryption and other functionality.

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