I-SEAMORE is yet another EU-funded attempt at providing enhanced, ideally complete maritime situational awareness through a toolkit of novel technological solutions.
The project’s “about” describes I-SEAMORE as an “integrated Ecosystem composed of an advanced platform solution to host and manage the operation of several innovative assets, services and systems for maritime operations”.
Goals of the I-SEAMORE project include:
1) providing “reduced reaction/response ties”;
2) enhancing “cross border and cross-sectoral cooperation through improved information sharing”;
3) improving “integration environment connecting heterogeneous assets and tools”;
4) facilitating “interaction among a wide variety of stakeholders, including citizens and civil society”;
5) understanding “citizens’ perception, awareness and acceptance on maritime surveillance and border security for the development of technological solutions”;
6) contributing “to the elaboration of policy recommendations on maritime surveillance systems”;
7) enhancing “co-creation between end-users.”
Ultimately, I-SEAMORE aims at developing a “holistic” platform that is capable of performing multiple tasks, such as “wide maritime border and coastal areas monitoring, analysis of potential threats, support to search and rescue operations”, and the “detection of illegal activities”. (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101073911)
I-SEAMORE outputs will be developed according to four main pillars.
These are
“1) employment and indirect tasking of multiple types of long-endurance Unmanned Assets (aerial and water surface),
2) exploitation of heterogeneous data sources e.g. payload data and open data sources including Copernicus Services,
3) provision of a common operational picture empowered by a novel and comprehensive suite of data fusion services based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analysis, for optimal decision making and successful mission execution of the desired missions, and
4) interoperability within the Ecosystem and its interface with key existing external systems”.
Specific technologies involved in the two use case scenarios (more on this below, ed.) include a “PUD UAV ‘ONE 150’ drone” capable of detecting “RF (radio frequency, ed.) signals”, and the collaboration between UAVs and USVs in response to a “suspicious activity” alerts.
Some more details on how I-SEAMORE plans to include Copernicus — and therefore satellite — data for maritime situational awareness are illustrated in a post that importantly claims that “the exploitation of heterogeneous data sources through innovative sensor payloads and open data sources including Copernicus-based Services, is one of the main pillars and key areas of this project.”
I-SEAMORE is part of the Border External Security (BES) Cluster led by METICOS.
Interestingly, the project includes a “Community Program,” which “aims to build a robust and engaged community” collaborating informally on “ethical, technical, and societal perspectives”.
I-SEAMORE was also part of a “pivotal event” on situational awareness organized by CERIS in February 2024. “Among the several participants contributing to this discourse was Ricard’s Munné, I-SEAMORE’s Project Coordinator from EVIDEN.” Also, panelists included Nikos Dourvas (CERTH-ITI), Anastasios Salis (Ministry of Migration and Asylum of Greece), Ricardo Oliveira Martins (Portuguese Naval Staff), Sirra Toivonen (VTT), and Mirco Scaffardi (CNIT), representing respectively the ROBORDER, REACTION, COMPASS2020, EURMARS and TUTELARY projects.”
A “Synergy Workshop” was held in January 2024, with the participation of representatives from the FLEXI-Cross, ODYSSEUS, PROMENADE, BAG-INTEL (“An intelligent system for improved efficiency and effectiveness of the customs control of passenger baggage from international flight arrivals”) and NESTOR projects.
No public deliverable or posts illustrates project pilots and demonstrations in detail, at the time of writing. We can however collect the available bits and pieces of information that are relevant to understanding I-SEAMORE’s plans for them. For example, some can be derived from an interview with its project coordinator, Ricard Munné.
When asked about how his plans “to test and validate the effectiveness of the I-SEAMORE platform”, Munné answered: “Besides some testing cycles to ensure interoperability and integration of the components, demonstrators in realistic operational scenarios will be hosted, leveraging on the use cases previously defined.”
Additionally, in its 2nd General Assembly, “Consortium members actively participated in workshop activities focused on progress in preparing towards implementation and use case demonstrations.”
A post shared on the project’s LinkedIn channel in March 2024 announced that “I-SEAMORE has started the testing flights!”, announcing “the successful completion of a crucial testing flight within the I-SEAMORE project, aimed at verifying the performance of our cutting-edge aircraft and its components. While the specific results remain confidential”, wrote the Consortium, “this testing flight marks a significant step forward in our mission. At the heart of our project lies the goal of enhancing the operational capabilities of UxV platforms through innovative physical adaptations. These flight-tests serve as a crucial validation of our new power system and allow us to quantify the navigational enhancements we’ve achieved.”
Deliverable D2.7, available but “pending approval” (similarly to all the project deliverables publicly shared at the time of writing), identifies two use cases: irregular migration and drug smuggling. “Both challenges”, notes the deliverable, “require enhanced collaboration among authorities, improvements in data sharing and data elaboration, especially in relation to maritime surveillance. In this sense, the setting up of practical scenarios would help in evaluating the efficacy and effectiveness of I-SEAMORE solutions vis-à-vis these challenges”.
More specifically, the first use case would involve “detecting irregular migration near the maritime borders of Spain and/or Portugal. It involves a scenario where a migrant vessel attempts to evade detection by not reporting AIS signals, exploiting foggy conditions and low sunlight. Advanced technologies like radar, thermal imaging, data analytics, and pattern recognition algorithms are employed to enhance border authorities’ capabilities in identifying and intercepting such vessels. Specialised sensors and situational awareness tools are crucial in optimising detection in challenging maritime environments”.
The second use case would instead deal with “the smuggling of narcotics from Morocco to Europe in the waters of southern Iberian Peninsula, focusing on nighttime illicit activities with small, fast boats interacting with merchant vessels.”
The available project material is mostly devoid of ethical or human rights-based considerations, at the time of writing.
We do know, however, that a dedicated framework for such issues — the “SELP” framework, which addresses social, ethical, legal, and privacy issues — was discussed during the May 2023 I-SEAMORE Validation and Guidelines Workshop in which “Participants explored the integration of these vital aspects into I-SEAMORE research activities, ensuring a responsible and compliant approach.”
Then, the SELP framework was also discussed during the I-SEAMORE Ethics internal workshop, hosted by the Institute of International Sociology of Gorizia, and described as a “significant initiative aimed at comprehensively addressing social, ethical, legal, and privacy considerations within the realm of I-SEAMORE research activities”. It also allegedly showed “a shared commitment to ethical excellence. This collaborative effort ensures that the ethical compass remains firmly aligned with the groundbreaking research that I-SEAMORE is pioneering.” Given the critical information we currently miss, however, we cannot produce an evidence-based judgment on whether that is actually the case.
Some issues are recurrent in other projects we analyzed. For example, in its promotional video, the project bundles “rescue operations” with drug trafficking, illegal fishing, and environmental disasters, in a list of “threats” to the European seas — thus adopting a “crimmigration”, national security-oriented framework rather than a humanitarian one.
A solutionist mindset is also apparent in several passages of project-related material. For example, when it is claimed that the I-SEAMORE platform “integrates data sources and AI-based analysis for optimal decision-making”, or in this trenchant interview answer by I-SEAMORE’s coordinator, Ricard Munné: “If you had to describe the I-SEAMORE project with one word, what would it be? Optimisation!”
A totalizing view of maritime surveillance also emerges from Munné’s words in the same interview, for example when he claims that “The use of unmanned assets with longer endurances, as one of the key innovations in I-SEAMORE, together with the use of Copernicus data, will enable longer permanence in the regions of interest, allowing better coverage in terms of surveillance time and area, improving by thrice current monitoring capabilities, while decreasing by more than a half the operations costs”.
Given the plethora of projects funded to realize the objective of an enhanced, ideally complete maritime situational awareness through digital surveillance and AI-based systems for data fusion (cfr. ANDROMEDA, COMPASS2020, EFFECTOR, EURMARS, MARISA, and more) one might wonder when the threshold for an acceptable degree of maritime surveillance could be reached — and whether it could be compatible with democratic values at all.
This is all the more concerning given that the coordinator’s solutionism seems to push for ever increasing and more pervasive surveillance:
“The consortium sees this operational concept spreading over EU Member States Maritime Authorities, probably complemented with additional data sources like: Low Earth Orbit Earth Observation satellite constellations, that may allow daily revisit times within the Atlantic region; in-situ sensors, such as fixed high-sea surveillance buoys, whose data is relayed via the future EU constellation; generated by additional unmanned assets, such as persistent underwater vehicles, high-altitude pseudo satellites, lighter-than-air dirigibles, etc. All the data will be easily integrated with the plug-and-play approach employed in the I-SEAMORE ecosystem. Moreover, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) developed by I-SEAMORE will support the uptake of the operational concept and the underlying technology by providing a structured methodology for Maritime Authorities to accelerate the uptake of unmanned assets in their operations”. Again, one could wonder: is this necessary and proportionate?
Lastly, Newsletter #3 noted in May 2024 that a survey was also conducted: “the present survey intends to provide information on citizens’ awareness and acceptance of EU maritime security systems. This data will allow the I-SEAMORE team to further develop its analysis on the perception, acceptance, awareness and trust of border surveillance technologies and their perceived impact and effectiveness. This allows I-SEAMORE to integrate these inputs and concerns in its activities, design, and products”. Results are not yet known, but details of the survey are provided in deliverable D2.2. What we do already know, however, is that the survey includes some extremely problematic claims; surveillance without appropriate rights protection is repeatedly considered as an option to be evaluated by respondents, for example.
