The Quad grouping, comprising India, Australia, Japan and the U.S., announced at the Tokyo summit in May 2022 an ambitious Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) initiative.
- The IPMDA aims to track “dark shipping” and to 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).
- “Dark ships” are vessels with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) – a transponder system – switched off so as not to be detectable.
- The Automatic Identification System (AIS), whi is for bigger ships, which was made compulsory for all vessels above 20 metres after 26/11 by the National Committee on Strengthening Maritime and Coastal Security (NCSMCS).
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)
- Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a broad term that captures a wide variety of fishing activity.
- IUU fishing is found in all types and dimensions of fisheries; it occurs both on the high seas and in areas within national jurisdiction.
- There are two main regulations globally on IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated ) fishing — the Cape Town Agreement (CTA) and the Agreement on Ports State Measures (PSMA) — and India is, so far, not a signatory to both agreements.
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