When a cargo vessel goes dark — switching off its AIS transponder in international waters — it leaves a gap in the record. That gap is evidence. The absence of a signal, documented correctly and cross-referenced against satellite imagery, is as investigatively significant as the signal itself. AIS is not simply a tracking tool. It is a forensic layer, and reading it — including its silences — is a foundational skill for anyone working maritime investigations, sanctions research, or conflict reporting.
Use the AIS and MMSI workflow when establishing a vessel's position history, identifying dark periods, cross-referencing broadcast identity against registered ownership, or building an evidentiary record for a sanctions or conflict investigation. A single AIS gap, in isolation, is ambiguous. A gap corroborated against satellite imagery, ownership records, and route history is not.
MAR-001 sets out the methodology for querying MMSI across platforms, cross-referencing ownership and flag state data, and documenting AIS gaps to evidentiary standard.
Six tooling sources, four OPSEC requirements, eight workflow steps, five false-positive patterns, six chain-of-custody requirements, six key queries.
|
01
Required Tools
Six platforms covering AIS, MMSI, ownership, and flag state data.
|
02
OPSEC
Vessel-tracking attribution risks and counter-surveillance indicators.
|
|
03
Workflow
Eight-step sequence from MMSI acquisition to chain-of-custody documentation.
|
04
False Positives
Five patterns misread as intentional dark behaviour.
|
|
05
Chain of Custody
Six requirements for timestamping, hashing, and preserving AIS evidence.
|
06
Key Queries
Six operator queries across MarineTraffic, Equasis, and ITU MARS.
|
Download the card.
A PDF version of MAR-001 is available to download below.
