Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness initiative

Why in news?

• The Quad grouping announced at the Tokyo summit last month an ambitious Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) initiative to track and address Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Indo-Pacific.
• There has been growing concern and action on IUU fishing that depletes fish stocks, destroys marine habitats, puts fishermen at disadvantage and impacts coastal communities, especially in developing countries.

About IPMDA:

• It aims to track “dark shipping” and build a “faster, wider, and more accurate maritime picture of near-real-time activities in partners’ waters” integrating three critical regions in the Indo-Pacific - the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

Global regulation on IUU fishing:

• There are two main regulations globally on IUU fishing
  • Cape Town Agreement (CTA)
  • Agreement on Ports State Measures (PSMA)
• India is, so far, NOT a signatory of both the agreements.

Current tracking system in India:

• Automatic Identification System (AIS) was made compulsory for bigger ships (above 20 metres) after 26/11 by the National Committee on Strengthening Maritime and Coastal Security (NCSMCS).
• An ambitious effort to install satellite-based Vehicle Monitoring Systems (VMS) for small fishing vessels (less than 20m) across the country’s coastline in the aftermath of 26/11 Mumbai attacks is still to be rolled out.
• VMS is slightly different from AIS:
  • AIS is a broadcast mode which anyone can receive while VMS is a proprietary system and one can’t receive unless the data is given.
  • It terms of functioning VMS has a transponder which relays data via a satellite.

PRACTICE QUESTION

Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) initiative, recently seen in news is associated with:

(a) QUAD grouping

(b) European Union

(c) ASEAN

(d) Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

Answer