ALEXANDRA (New Zealand), LONDON (United Kingdom), June 22 2022 – From this month Starboard® Maritime Intelligence will be used by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) to enhance their effectiveness when undertaking research into illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing
and associated human rights abuses.
EJF recognises that new technology is an enabler to support their work.
“We are delighted to be subscribing to Starboard, using this cutting-edge technology to further tighten the net, put
these operators out of business, and protect the coastal communities and wildlife that depend on our ocean,” says Steve
Trent, CEO and co-founder of EJF.
Starboard was launched in mid 2021, and the platform is currently in use across the Pacific by pivotal fisheries
monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) organisations. This year, the software has supported three surveillance
operations in the region. These multinational collaborative exercises work to reduce IUU fishing.
“We feel privileged that Starboard is being used to support analysts working in monitoring, control and surveillance. It
is helping them cut through the noise and spend more of their expert time on delivering valuable intelligence,” says Mat
Brown, Sales Manager for Starboard. “EJF is our first NGO subscriber, and it’s great to see their analysts and
researchers seeing immediate benefit from Starboard.”
EJF is globally recognised and has staff in 11 countries who focus on uncovering environmental and human rights abuses
through their work.
“For over two decades, our investigations at EJF have exposed illegal fishing around the world and the human rights
abuse that often accompanies it,” says Trent. “We have worked with governments, regional organisations, and others to
halt this exploitation of workers and degradation of our ocean.”
Although EJF had been using similar data sources in their analysis, Starboard was able to speed up the process for their
investigations and provide new derived insights.
“EJF trialled the platform initially and found that analysis which may have previously taken five days is now just
taking one,” comments Brown. “This is the type of feedback we hear from users regularly. It is exactly what we want to
be delivering with Starboard, helping those analysts and researchers get to the outcomes faster.”
Starboard supports governments, border security teams, NGOs, and fisheries organisations to navigate the vast amounts of
maritime data available from satellite sensors – including around 33 million ship positions every day – and focus on the
vessels that matter to them.