Starboard Maritime Intelligence Review: Turning ocean data into early warnings
February 3, 2026
Starboard Maritime Intelligence is building a kind of “pattern of life radar” for the ocean, fusing AIS, satellite imagery, RF data and contextual databases so governments and critical infrastructure operators can see which vessels are behaving normally and which ones deserve a closer look. The pitch is simple: less time staring at dots on a map, more time acting on the few ships that matter for security, subsea cables, sanctions, fisheries or biosecurity.
Starboard Maritime Intelligence • Headquarters
Level 1, 6 Johnsonville Road,
Johnsonville, Wellington 6037, New Zealand
Johnsonville, Wellington 6037, New Zealand
Operational missions Starboard is built to support
These tiles show how Starboard’s maritime intelligence stack is used in practice, from national security and cable protection to trade compliance, fisheries and polar research.
Defence & Intelligence
From dots on a screen to intent
Defence and intelligence teams use Starboard to detect anomalous behaviour, score risk and route alerts into secure workflows, so patrol days focus on vessels that genuinely look out of pattern instead of every ship inside the EEZ.
Critical Infrastructure
Subsea cables and offshore energy
Cable owners and offshore operators rely on Starboard for real time watch around infrastructure, combining AIS, SAR, RF and historical behaviour to see anchor threats, slow loitering traffic and repeat offenders long before a line is cut.
Trade & Compliance
Shadow fleets and spoofing patterns
Trade and sanctions teams use the platform to flag dark activity, spoofed tracks and high risk encounters, then pull audit ready reports that support a decision to clear, escalate or decline a voyage or vessel in a compliance review.
Fisheries & Biosecurity
Illegal fishing and invasive risk
Fisheries and biosecurity analysts combine Starboard tracking with science inputs to prioritise inspections, see transshipment networks and focus boarding teams on vessels that push into protected areas or raise invasive species concerns at the border.
Research & ESG
Patterns of life for ocean projects
Researchers, NGOs and ESG teams draw on Starboard history to reconstruct multi year vessel patterns around marine protected areas, polar routes or sensitive habitats, turning AIS archives into evidence for funding, regulation or stewardship work.
Frontline Operations
Putting intelligence in the watchroom
Operations rooms and watchstanders get an interface built for rapid triage, where high risk vessels bubble up automatically, encounter histories sit one click away and alerts do more of the sorting so humans can focus on action.
Taken together, these missions show how one maritime intelligence platform can underpin very different workflows. The same fused view of AIS, satellite and context data supports decisions about patrol tasking, cable protection, sanctions exposure, inspections and long term stewardship of sensitive waters.
Notable mentions and external references
Independent articles and profiles that show how Starboard is being funded, tested and applied in cable protection, maritime surveillance and high risk operations.
-
Series A funding to scale subsea and security work Yachting VenturesCoverage of a multimillion euro Series A round for Starboard, framed around AI powered protection of oceans and subsea infrastructure and the plan to scale customer support across more regions. Read the funding write up .
-
AI surveillance for cables, fishing and trade routes AIWorld.euA profile of Starboard as an AI maritime surveillance platform monitoring hundreds of thousands of cable route kilometres and addressing risks like cable sabotage, illegal fishing and contested trade lanes. Open the AIWorld article .
-
New intelligence platform for marine crime and safety SpringwiseSpringwise presents Starboard as an intelligence platform for monitoring marine crime, highlighting use cases around illegal fishing and suspicious encounters rather than generic fleet tracking. View the Springwise feature .
-
National trial on subsea cable monitoring RNZNational media article describing a government trial using Starboard to monitor subsea cable risks, with screenshots and commentary about shifting from blind spots to proactive detection around critical assets. Read the RNZ story .
-
Protecting submarine cables with maritime intelligence IMarESTA technical article that explains how modern maritime intelligence platforms can move cable operators and governments from react and repair to detect and deter, using Starboard as a reference model. Open the IMarEST piece .
-
Illicit on water activity disrupted Space and DefenseCase focused coverage on how Starboard supported monitoring of fishing and other high risk activity, with emphasis on using intelligence feeds to disrupt illegal transfers and tighten enforcement. Read the case overview .
These links are a starting point if you want to check how Starboard is being used and discussed outside its own marketing, from funding announcements to cable trials and enforcement results.
Cable risk and prevention sketch
Rough out how much loss exposure sits on your subsea cable routes and what a shift from react and repair to detect and deter might look like in simple numbers.
Inputs
Total route length you are responsible for or monitoring as operator, investor or regulator.
Use a blended rate for anchor drags, fishing damage and other breaks. You can dial this up or down.
Repairs, vessel time, spares, survey and specialist services. Exclude indirect commercial losses here.
A planning assumption for how much better detection and deterrence could reduce successful strikes.
Platform subscription, analysis, playbooks, drills and any additional response capability.
Sketch impact
Baseline expected loss per year
$0
Expected loss after prevention program
$0
Expected loss reduction per year
$0
Net benefit after program cost
$0
| Category | Calculated value |
|---|---|
| Expected incidents per year at baseline | 0.0 |
| Expected incidents per year with prevention | 0.0 |
| Baseline expected annual loss | $0 |
| Expected annual loss after prevention | $0 |
| Annual loss reduction | $0 |
| Net result after program cost | $0 |
| Indicative benefit to cost ratio | n/a |