The possibility of use of the AIS data transmissions for safety and security monitoring in the Polish maritime areas

There are two new navigational systems introduced by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) during last few years useful for ships' monitoring purposes as additional source of information about vessels, supplementary to that derived from visual observation, shore based radar, radar tracking aids and VHF voice communication. These systems are: Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) and Automatic Ship Identification (AIS). Each one of them has some advantages and faults. Paper presents short description of these systems and vessel traffic services established in the Polish maritime areas, assessment of information available from AIS shore based monitoring system and its comparison with data derived from radar and radar tracking aids