Case study: tracing illegal oil discharge from ships

The illegal discharge of oily waste from ships is an important source of oil spill pollution and has become an important factor hindering the purification of the marine environment. Because SAR remote sensing is not restricted by light conditions, it can work at night, in heavy fog, overcast, and rainy days and has become one of the important techniques for monitoring oil spills on the sea. AIS can provide real-time and historical position and track information on ships. The combination of SAR and AIS can provide great help for maritime regulatory authorities to find the source of oil spill pollution. In this chapter, the technical ideas and an example of using AIS and SAR to carry out sea surface oil spill surveillance are illustrated. We used a case of illegal discharge of oily sewage from a ship in the Bohai Sea, China, and give some suggestions for the construction of the system in the future.