Recent reports in the news have brought to light a few instances of ships flagged to countries that they are not associated with. On October 20, 2016, the Tanzanian news service, The Citizen, reported that Tanzanian authorities recently seized two ships suspected to have connections to North Korea, but flying the flag of Tanzania. The Tanzanian Government was taking action to investigate and determine the association of the ships, as their actual identities remained unclear. Flag registers have rules for registration which generally make efforts to identify and ensure clearly the commercial connections of the companies registering ships. However commercial arrangements entered into by ship operators can be completely hidden from the flag registries of the ships.
By analyzing historical and current AIS data from Genscape Vesseltracker, governments and authorities can identify ships and their flag registries, as well as their positions reported through AIS within waters or ports of the countries they visit.
The AIS reports received by Genscape Vesseltracker to track ships contain a unique identity called the MMSI number, which is issued by a ship’s flag registry. The MMSI number received is intended to indicate a ship’s flag association. For instance, ships registered to the Tanzanian register are expected to transmit their positions with MMSI numbers that are associated to Tanzania; these specific numbers start with 674, 675, 676, or 677.
Many ships are observed to report incorrect information through the AIS system, either by an accident of misconfiguration or deliberate action. The information a ship transmits over AIS can be configured by the crew on board, and is therefore beyond the control of any maritime authority.
It may be that some ships are hiding their true identify or even transmitting MMSI and call-sign information that they have never been or are no longer registered to use. However, for ships that do not misconfigure their AIS reports, AIS does provide a good indication of the ships’ registrations.
Detailed investigation using Vesseltracker’s ShipDB database of information about ship registration and ownership can highlight the flag identities, including current or historic management information linked to a country of interest. Additionally, using Vesseltracker’s Long-Term Tracking Tool, activities of the ships in question can be identified through their travels to the country of interest and frequent destinations.
AIS Reports of Destinations
The destinations that ships report over AIS can also provide indications of their expected trade locations. However, some ships report certain ports as their destinations, but do not actually transmit AIS position reports within those ports or the country’s waters. These ships are suspected to have turned off their AIS while in or approaching a country where they do not want to be observed trading.
Hiding Links through the Flag Register is Not New
This is not the first time that ships linked to an internationally sanctioned regime have tried to continue trading by registering to a foreign flag. In 2012, Iranian tankers operated by IRISL did exactly the same. While imposed sanctions prevented trading in Iranian oil, the Iranian fleet was forced to change the registration of their ships. Some ships moved from large foreign registers that they had been on for many years to smaller ship registers with less publicly available information on membership. By the end of 2012, some Iranian ships had changed their flags multiple times before international action caught up with them. This forced Iranian ships to revert to flying the Iranian flag and openly admitting their identity and Iranian connection.
Reflagging happens frequently because many open registers, sometimes referred to as flags of convenience, are easy to join. While many require corporate registration within the flag country, this registration is often a quickly purchased company for which the ultimate owner or controlling body is not clear. Some registers can even be joined online, making it challenging to conduct detailed background checks.
Companies registering ships with a flag register must meet certain conditions to qualify, however some could meet these conditions without a thorough investigation into the registering company’s other commercial links (i.e. trade with certain countries). Additionally, flying a flag does not prevent ship owners from breaking the rules of their flag register. Flag specific rules are normally to do with the registering company being based or having commercial connections in the country of registration along with compliance of the ship owners with international rules of operation.
Leading Investigations
When conducting the investigation of ships visiting areas that contravene certain sanctions, or operate in locations that break the rules of their registration, charter, or insurance, reviewing their current and historic AIS reports using Genscape Vesseltracker can be a great place to start. Genscape Vesseltracker provides the tools to monitor the changing trade patterns with a combination of ship destination history, containerized ships schedules, and traffic analysis tools for monitoring current and historic ship traffic. Genscape Vesseltracker owns and operates the largest privately owned AIS receiver networks in the world, which is combined with the largest AIS Satellite constellation in existence to track over 144,000 vessels daily in near real-time. To learn more or request a free trial of Genscape Vesseltracker, please click here.