EJF Subscribes to Starboard

News · ALEXANDRA (New Zealand), LONDON (United Kingdom) · 22 June 2022

Environmental Justice Foundation chooses maritime intelligence platform from New Zealand startup

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.

More about the Environmental Justice Foundation

The Environmental Justice Foundation is an international non-governmental organisation working to protect the environment and defend human rights. EJF is a charity registered in England and Wales (1088128). www.ejfoundation.org

More about Starboard Maritime Intelligence

Starboard tackles complex maritime domain awareness challenges, ranging from detecting illegal fishing and risk assessing arriving vessels to validating vessel movements and uncovering non-reporting dark vessels.

Xerra and Starboard have been established with funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Learn more about Starboard.