Considered to be one of the top ten dive sites in the world, preserving this marine habitat is a challenge; particularly as one of its neighbours is also one of this country’s key tanker ports.

“Using Kordia’s Automatic Identification System, we provided a trial at the Poor Knights Marine Reserve,” says Mark Janor, Kordia Maritime account manager. “The objective was to visually monitor any vessels entering this restricted area and implement an automated alarm that would alert us to marine reserve incursions.”

Using their Maritime Radio Network, the Maritime Operations Centre would then communicate with any vessel that had entered the reserve’s borders, requesting that they quickly alter course and depart from this important site.

“The trial was extremely successful,” says Janor. “Over a period of 12 months, the AIS Network was responsible for identifying and diverting vessel on over 50 occasions.”

Suffice to say, the success of this trial ensured that Kordia secured the Poor Knights Marine Reserve, and Cook Strait monitoring services contract until 2014.

“We were chosen because we had the required combination of AIS receive coverage of the two areas , a 24/7 operations centre, and the ability to immediately alert vessels to breaches of the virtual geographical fence around this protected location,” states Janor.