The Joint Research Center through its Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC) developed a software package to improve its oil pollution detection system. This software will supplied the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in order to help Member States authorities to improve their response and prevention activities to pollution from ships.

SUMO (“Search for Unidentified Marine Objects”) is a tool for the automatic detection of vessels based on satellite images entirely developed by the JRC's Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC). This software is behind the Vessel Detection System (VDS), developed in support of EU fisheries legislation. Recently, the Commission launched its proposal to reform such legislation. VDS is a control tool that uses satellite images to find ships, and cross-checks their positions with those reported by the fishing vessels. It thereby signals to authorities the possible presence of illegally operating fishing ships.

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) will be supplied by this new software package. Oil spills can be detected on satellite images, thus satellite images are currently in use at EMSA for the operational detection of illegal oil discharges from ships through a monitoring service known as CleanSeaNet (CSN). Advanced automatic tools for the extraction of oil spills from satellite images have been developed by the JRC and are already in use in CSN. SUMO helps by detecting ships in the satellite images, and automatically correlating them with the positions resulting from EMSA's vessel traffic monitoring system (SafeSeaNet). This additional piece of information is crucial for national authorities to identify polluting ships and take actions.