Maritime domain awareness (MDA) is defined by the International Maritime Organization as the effective understanding of anything associated with the maritime domain that could impact the security, safety, economy, or environment. MDA is said to work as a ‘key enabler’ for other maritime security issues, such as anti-piracy patrols, in the way that in order to do effective patrols you need to have the ability of conducting effective MDA. The maritime domain is defined as all areas and things of, on, under, relating to, adjacent to, or bordering on a sea, ocean, or other navigable waterway, including all maritime-related activities, infrastructure, people, cargo, and vessels and other conveyances. Countries have always gathered information about the maritime environment, in order to generate intelligence necessary for various missions or finding enemy navies. Modern MDA however, was defined in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attack and the terror attack on the destroyer USS Cole. Maritime Domain Awareness programs aims to detect threats and come up with resolutions to these; helping with decision-making for different threats and; inspects that international law are kept, in order to ensure freedom of navigation. Different agents conducts MDA, the most important being Maritime Domain Awareness Centers or Maritime Domain Awareness Fusion Centers. Maritime Domain Awareness Centers can have different areas of studies, regional, crime, military threats etc. These centers gather the information, fuse it together and analyze the data in order to spot trends and patterns. The data gathered is useful for different things such as; law enforcement, governance and capacity building. The automatic identification system (AIS) is one of the most important sources of data for the MDA agencies. AIS is used in order for ships to know each other’s whereabouts, they transmit a signal from ship to ship and to shore. Lately, the system has been developed into satellite system, so called satellite AIS, which makes the system more effective. All ocean-going vessels above 300 tons, are supposed to use and transmit via AIS according to the International Maritime Organisation. The satellite constellations help facilitate this with "tip and cue" methodologies (Cudzilo et al., 2012: 1). Underwater domain awareness (UDA) is the aspect of maritime domain awareness focused on the underwater sector. There is a military requirement, but also a need to monitor undersea geophysical activity which can provide vital clues to minimize the impact of devastating natural disasters.
Canada In Canada, the 2004 National Security Policy resulted in establishment of Marine Security Operations Centres (MSOCs) responsible for supporting a national response to maritime security threats. The East Coast MSOC is in Halifax, the West Coast MSOC in Victoria, and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway MSOC in Niagara.
European Union The European Union took a decision in 2008 to improve the integration and interoperability of member states' maritime safety, security, border control, environmental protection, fisheries and law enforcement systems in order to create a Common Information Sharing Environment for the EU maritime domain.
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