For all the fickleness and danger of the sea, it’s an excellent trade route.
To call the worldwide maritime trading system “the backbone of the world’s economy” is actually an understatement. A staggering ninety percent of the world’s trade happens by sea.
On top of that ninety-nine percent of telephone and internet communications make use of submarine cables, maritime endeavors supply more than a million jobs, and all that is to say nothing of the human travel, recreational boating, fishing, and other activities that happen on and through the world’s oceans and waterways.
The maritime world is an incredibly busy place. And it needs protection.
The amount of economic harm that could, and at times has, been done through maritime obstruction is unspeakably large. Furthermore, flaws within the maritime industry including piracy, fraud, smuggling (especially of drugs, weapons, and other harmful products), pollution, human trafficking, terrorism support, and more, take a heavy toll on the world’s wellbeing and security.
To learn more about the challenges and available solutions in maritime security, including the use of Spotter radars to protect waterways, fish farms, dams, and other maritime locations, continue reading.
There’s Just So Much to Keep Track Of
So many working parts—so many places where things could go wrong.
The worldwide maritime system operates through over forty thousand vessels, more than a million seafaring employees from all around the world, and thousands of routes, ports, and laws, all operating together within complex jurisdictional nuances.
The United States Marine Transportation System alone handles about 20% of worldwide maritime trade. It’s an enormous system, consisting of more than 300 maritime ports with about 3700 cargo and passenger terminals. Altogether, this system transports more than 2 billion tons of goods, both domestic and international, each year. It imports more than 3 billion tons of domestic oil, accommodates 134 million ferry passengers, 78 million recreational boaters, and 5 million cruise ship passengers every year.
To work, this system needs to keep moving. It needs to load, authorize, inspect, transport, and unload goods continuously, with very little time for delays. Most of the system works off of just-in-time models of delivery, especially for perishable goods. This demanding pace simply doesn’t allow extra time for mistakes or additional security checks, not when one backed up shipping lane can cost investors and consumers so much. The phrase “running a tight ship” doesn’t even cover the half of it.
This is why the security checks that are in place and accounted for on the schedule need to be absolutely top grade.
How What Happens on the Sea Affects Everyone
Few voters or government leaders spend much time thinking about the sea or about maritime trade. Although they probably should.
It’s not just that the maritime system upholds the world’s economy. The problems that flow through the maritime industry ripple out to affect all of society.
Piracy and the various costs it incurs places a “hidden tax” on the entire world’s economy. Weapons smuggling fuels international terrorist efforts to destabilize nations and threaten the balance of peace between nations. Profitable drug smuggling fuels widespread corruption, delinquency, and ill health. Ocean pollution affects the healthy water supply of nearly the entire world as well as threatening the fishing industry that 10-12% of the world’s population depends on for livelihoods. The continuing plague of human trafficking complicates immigration and international relations and, especially in the case of sex and illegal labor trafficking, lowers the moral character of the entire world. And as vulnerable to these serious problems as the maritime system is, the potential economic devastation caused by a breakdown of the maritime system could cause casualties in the millions.
As a reference point, a strike once closed the United States western ports for just ten days. The resulting losses were estimated at $19.4 billion. Imagine what widespread maritime terrorism could do.
Simply put, there are big consequences for mistakes in the maritime world, not just for those who work in the industry, but for everyone. Maritime business companies and seafarers must be cautious, as huge financial fines, penalties, and even imprisonment can result from their oversights.
The Need (and Potential) for Increased Maritime Security
Ideally, the stringent security measures followed by the maritime industry, especially at vital junctures such as ports and key waterways, should protect the world from the ills of drug smuggling, terrorism, pollution, fraud, theft, and human trafficking. If successful, stringent maritime security measures could disrupt the chain of supply between international criminal elements and benefit the whole world.
And yet, vigilance at every point in such a large international web is a challenging thing to achieve. Many players, resources, and other factors impact the ongoing security and economy of maritime trade. Certainly a great deal of harm has been and is prevented by the security measures already in place. But it is also obvious that there are gaps through which harmful elements are leaking through.
International Cooperation
One of the first requirements of improved maritime security is international cooperation. No one country can fully secure the maritime domain on their own. Indeed, there is hardly a nation that can even fully defend their own borders on their own, not when participating in and drawing from such a large international web.
In order to close the gaps in maritime security, various port authorities, shipping companies, and maritime law enforcement and protection agencies must be able to share vital information and collaborate on a regular basis. Only such cooperation will allow maritime security risks to be rooted out at their inception.
If all the international elements of the maritime landscape remain vigilant and are properly united in their goals for safety, the complex, multilayered nature of the maritime domain can work for better security rather than against it. Multi-layered security is, after all, the best approach. In order for civil liability to operate and enforce shared safety standards however, trust and more streamlined avenues of communication must be built up between credentialed agencies.
Maritime Personnel
The right people on ships, working the docks, etc, can do much to help close the security gaps in the maritime industry. The wrong people in the wrong place can widen those gaps. A single, well-placed accomplice can not only help drug cartels, terrorists, and other criminals succeed but multiply their creative options (i.e. for example, apart from being transported in traditional shipping containers, drugs can be hidden in smaller containers welded to the outside of ships, hidden inside ship infrastructure, couriered by internationally traveling sailors, etc). Vigilance is required as criminals going about highly lucrative illegal operations will be willing to pay handsomely to recruit the right people within the maritime structure.
Employee background checks and security training, including instruction on how to recognize and report suspicious circumstances, are vital. Background checks on third-party contractors are often recommended. Company policies regarding drug smuggling and other illegal activity should be clearly communicated and displayed both aboard ships and in ports. On-site anti-narcotics teams with sniffer dogs can be extremely helpful.
Port Security
Access Control
Protecting ports and coastlines from intrusion is no small or easy endeavor. Ports often cover miles of coastline, typically have multiple entrance and exit points for ships, automobiles, and foot traffic, and, as they face the open ocean, can be approached by multitudinous over water pathways.
On top of that, ports are busy places. It’s difficult to pick out potential incoming threats when there is such a constant high volume traffic flow coming in and out daily from both land and sea. There is a lot of room and cover for an unscheduled vehicle or vessel to either enter the port or get close to the port without interdiction.
Port authorities and the Coast Guard can and do scan for anomalous vessel activity, such as vessels deviating from economical routes who might be trying to land in unconventional areas, but overall, searching for overt anomalies in the traffic flow is limited in its effectiveness.
According to experts, the greatest threats to external port security seem to be, firstly, the risk of a vessel successfully coming to port carrying and detonating a dirty bomb to damage port infrastructure and, secondly, the occurrence of logistical accidents that could significantly damage port operations.
Cargo Inspection
Inspection of cargo is a vital task. Ideally, container contents should be verified at both the port of origin and the port of destination. Unfortunately, official estimates report that only 2% of all containers are checked.
“[The greatest weakness] is the sheer volume of containers moving through the ports and the speed with which they have to be processed and passed through the port in order to maintain the increasing demand,” says Peter Cook, maritime security expert and founding director of consultancy PCA Maritime. He points out the shipping containers are large and getting larger and, as ports only have so much room to work with, getting containers through the port quickly is crucial for the “efficiency and profitability of the port”.
This speed vs. security tradeoff is troubling. It’s evident that too many unexamined containers contain human trafficking victims, drugs, weapons, or other illegal goods. Terror groups and criminals like nothing better than to be able to blend their containers in with the masses of other containers and slip contraband past security checks with the speed of port operations on their side.
There have been some efforts by prominent organizations to improve container surveillance. In 2007, for example, U.S. President George W. Bush signed a recommendation for all cargo to be scanned before being loaded onto ships headed for the United States.
X-ray machines have been very effective at scanning containers and bulk liquid haulers for stowaways and illegal goods. But, despite the aforementioned federal reocmmendation containers are not always X-rayed. What’s more, X-rays don’t work on lead-lined refrigerated containers. In one tragic incident, the bodies of 39 Vietnamese migrants were found in a refrigerated container aboard a truck in the UK. The container in which they suffocated had passed uncontested through the port of Zeebrugge.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, though it combines the efforts of 18 countries to combat human trafficking, environmental crime, piracy, drug smuggling, and other crimes in the maritime domain, does not include any mention of container surveillance in their annual reports or manuals.
Protections Against Dirty Bombs in Major Ports
“Dirty bombs” combine radioactive material with conventional explosives. Such a bomb could do long-lasting damage to port infrastructure. According to RAND, a terrorist and national security research organization, a dirty-bomb attack perpetrated through an illicit cargo container in the port presents “the greatest combination of likelihood and expected economic harm” to U.S. ports.
The current protections against a dirty-bomb attack include the CBP’s (Customs and Border Patrol) efforts to pre-analyzed incoming cargo (according to ship manifests, vessel histories, and other factors), conduct risk analyses, and promote the pre-screening of at-risk vessels before they come to the United States. In addition to being screened for radiation, such vessels are scanned with X-ray or gamma-ray devices, searching for anomalies that, if present, may warrant a physical search. Overall, foreign-stationed CBP officers have access to 80% of the cargo inbound for the United States. However, due to logistical limitations, only about 1% of outgoing cargo receive this full radiation screen and x-ray scan treatment. Another 2.7% are tested to this depth upon entry at a seaport. That’s 4% of cargo overall cargo getting the full scanning and screening treatment.
While 4% isn’t the most inspiring number, it is a comfort to know that, before leaving a U.S. port to enter general commerce, as of 2010, nearly 100% of vessel containers (as well as trucks coming in through the Canadian or Mexican border and airborne cargo) are scanned for irradiated material. In the event that radiation is detected, port workers are trained in “Secure, Isolate, and Notify” protocols.
Logistical Dangers
The mishandling of logistics in port operations can, and sometimes has, done more damage than any attempted terrorist action. A few prominent examples show how logistical mishaps in port operations can cost many lives and millions of dollars:
- The Baltimore Bridge Collision: In March of 2024, a large cargo vessel collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Six construction workers were killed and more than $100M worth of damages were done to the area. The cause of the mis-navigation and disastrous crash was the ship's faulty electrical system.
- Suez Canal Block: In March of 2021, a ship known as the “Ever Given” ran aground in the middle of the Suez Canal. The resultant six-day backup of trade flow cost Egypt roughly $90M.
- The Beirut Port Explosion: On August 4th, 2020, a massive explosion occurred in the port of the Lebanese capital of Beirut. More than 300 people were killed, 7,000 were injured, and, since the explosion reached apartment buildings near the ports, hundreds of thousands were displaced. The cause of the explosion was the ignition of 2,750 tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate in one of the port warehouses. The World Bank estimated that the incident did $8B worth of damage.
Clearly, there are a lot of things that can go disastrously wrong in and around a sea port. From improper cargo storage, to poor ship maintenance and water depth issues, to keep our ports safe, strict standards on logistical operations must be set, maintained, and enforced.
Security for Smaller Ports, Waterways, & Unofficial Landing Sites
Most maritime security is concentrated at major U.S. ports. Smaller ports, due to their smaller size and familiarity of personnel, are in some ways more vulnerable to security problems and in other ways more secure than larger ports. Even so, small ports still need to be carefully monitored and their personnel trained to detect and mitigate criminal activity.
A great deal too many small vessels bearing illicit cargo enter the United States through either smaller ports or unconventional landing sites. AIS (Automatic Identification Systems), used for short-range coastal tracking, help identify vessels deviating from economical routes, but even with this monitoring, a 2016 estimate stated that only about 30% illicit cargo-bearing vessels are apprehended.
What About the Coast Guard?
The Coast Guard does important work of monitoring the sea closest to and surrounding a nation, areas that, though covered in water, are still considered to be under their nation’s jurisdiction. They also carefully monitor ports, large and small, and other potential “offloading” points along their nation’s coastline, help rescue trapped vessels and individuals especially in the event of hurricanes or other disasters, and investigate foreign vessels, both military and commercial, that sail into their nation’s waters.
The theme of “too much ground to cover” continues here however. Coastguards work hard to perform their duties, but are often unable to exert total control over their entire coast and the sea surrounding their nation’s borders. It’s not like monitoring a road. Traveling over open water, errant vessels can sail in at hundreds of different points, from hundreds of different angles. As a result, Coastguard operations are often, by necessity, minimalist and reactive.
Their operations are significantly helped, however, by reliable satellite, sonar, and radar surveillance, making them able to detect and track potential threats at long distances and over wide areas of open sea, but even these methods aren’t foolproof.
Ship Security
As was seen during the Baltimore Bridge Collision, maintenance and security failures aboard a single ship can have a far-reaching impact on the maritime domain. Individual ships need to be kept safe and in good working order, both when they are in and around ports and when they are out at sea. The two greatest threats to individual ship security seem to be maintenance upkeep and piracy.
Ship Maintenance
Clear and strict maintenance standards and practices help keep ships in good working order. Among the most important practices are adhering to flag-state and vessel class requirements, regular surveys and inspections, record-keeping, cleaning, and dedicated maintenance of the ships’ most vital working parts including the engine, electrical system, and pump system.
To avoid sabotage, smuggling, and stowaway activity, careful access control should be maintained. To avoid delays and accidents, the ship’s navigation and communication systems should also be well maintained. Finally, emergency training for all crew members should make sure they are prepared to respond to any malfunctions or pirating attempts.
As various shipping companies develop and consider the advantages of fully-automated ships, it will be interesting to see how this trend will grow and how it will affect both maintenance and anti-piracy concerns. The first of these ships, the Yara Brikeland, made its maiden voyage in 2022 in Norway.
Modern Piracy
Occasional resurgences of pirating activity have repeatedly reminded the maritime world of the unique dangers posed to ships sailing alone. One significant rise in piracy occurred in the 1990s, starting at more than 100 attacks per year, it escalated to 275 attacks per year by 1999—and those are just the attacks that got reported. In addition to stealing the onboard cargo, pirates have taken ships for ransom or resale, run them aground, or attacked them with explosives. It is not uncommon for pirates to brutalize, murder, or hold crew members for ransom.
Another escalation began in the summer of 2008 around the Horn of Africa where fleets of small boats, directed by Somali pirates, stole cargo and held ships and passengers hostage for ransom. Before 2008 was over, 812 people from 42 different ships had been taken hostage.
Drawing on the data from hundreds of piracy incidents, certain areas have been labeled as hotspots for piracy activity, including the South China Sea, certain areas around Africa, the Mediterranean, and certain areas around Central America, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
Various international organizations and movements have been established to help prevent, mitigate, report, and prosecute acts of piracy, including the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) of the IMO, Piracy Reporting Center (PRC), Global Anti Piracy (GAP) Maritime Security Initiative, and others.
These organizations help coordinate international responses to incidents of piracy, alert ships to reported piracy attacks, support the training of vessel owners and operators, and, in some cases, trace ship activity to better detect when a ship has gone off course, possibly due to a pirate attack.
Radar Applications for Over Water Perimeter Security
Radar is one of the most relied-upon methods for detecting and tracking over water threats. Radar perimeter security systems, integrated with Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) and thermal cameras, can not only detect and track approaching vessels from multiple kilometers away through fog and darkness but also initiate security protocols as soon as detected vessels pass certain proximity thresholds. AI filtering allows these radar systems to distinguish between non-threatening movement, such as waves and local marine life, and actual potential threats, from large and small boats to swimmers.
Compact surveillance radars, such as those produced by Spotter Global®, help monitor and guard select waterways, prevent the significant damage of theft from fish farms, and can defend dams, ports, and offshore facilities from perimeter breaches approaching over land or over water. To work well in maritime environments, Spotter radars are made to the IP67 standard and are tested for resilience to extreme temperatures.
Conclusion
Maritime security is a complicated endeavor, requiring the cooperation and integration of many different organizations, technologies, and nations. While gaps in maritime security support many economic and societal ills, the tightening of maritime security could do much to disrupt both small-scale maritime crime and various forms of large-scale international crime.
Increased international cooperation, high-quality personnel training, and the implementation of reliable technologies, such as compact surveillance radar, can help the world achieve its maritime security goals.