VOA标准英语--Cargo Vessels Evade Detection, Raising Fears of Huge Trafficking Operations

（单词翻译）

 Hundreds of ships are switching off their tracking devices and taking unexplained routes, raising concern the trafficking of arms, migrants and drugs is going undetected.

Ninety percent of the world’s trade is carried by sea. Every vessel¹ has an identification number administered by the United Nations’ International Maritime² Organization or IMO. But crews are able to change the digital identity of their ship, making it possible to conceal³ previous journeys.

The Israeli firm Windward has developed software to track the changes. Its CEO, Ami Daniel, showed VOA several examples of suspicious shipping⁴ activity, including one vessel that changed its entire identity in the middle of a voyage from a Chinese port to North Korea.

“It’s intentionally⁵ changing all of identification numbers. Also its name, and its size, and its flag and its owner. Everything that’s recognizable in its digital footprint. This is obviously someone who is trying to circumvent⁶ sanctions [on North Korea],” says Daniel.

Transfers at sea

In a joint⁷ investigation⁸ with the Times of London newspaper, Windward showed that in January and February more than 1,000 cargo⁹ transfers took place at sea. Security experts fear traffickers are transporting drugs, weapons, and even people.

Suspicious activity can be highlighted by comparing a vessel’s journey with all its previous voyages. In mid-January a Cyprus-flagged ship designed to carry fish deviated¹⁰ from its usual route between West Africa and northern Europe to visit Ukraine, deactivating¹¹ its tracking system on several occasions.

“It’s leaving Ukraine, transiting¹² all through the Bosphorus Straits into Europe, then drifting off Malta,” explains Daniel, as the Windward system plots the route of the reefer [refrigerated] vessel on the screen. “On the way it turns off transmission a few times ... then it comes into this place east of Gibraltar. This area is known for ship-to-ship transfers and smuggling¹³, because of the proximity¹⁴ to North Africa.”

Under global regulations all vessels¹⁵ must report their last port of call when arriving in a new port.

“But as you can understand, when it does ship-to-ship transfers here, it doesn’t actually call into any port, right, because it’s the middle of the ocean. So it’s finding a way to bypass what it already has to report to the authorities,” Daniel said.

Finally the vessel sails to a remote Scottish island called Islay, but again it anchors around 400 meters off a tiny deserted¹⁶ bay. The specific purpose of this voyage hasn’t yet been identified.

Lack of political will

Daniel shows another example of a vessel leaving the Libyan port of Tobruk before drifting just off the Greek island of Crete, raising suspicions that it is involved in people smuggling.

But he says using information like this to investigate suspicious shipping activities requires political will as well as technological¹⁷ advances.

“Regulation, coordination¹⁸, legislation. And then proof in the court of law. And not all of this necessarily exists. The high seas, which means 200 nautical¹⁹ miles onwards by definition, are not regulated right now. The U.N. is still working on it.”

Meanwhile the scale of smuggling around the United States’ coastline was underlined this month, as the Coast Guard intercepted²⁰ 660 kilos of cocaine²¹ off the coast of Florida, with a street value of an estimated $420 million.