Longkou, a seaside city in northern China’s Shandong Province, has been among the first domestic localities to adopt drones for coast patrol and maritime inspection.
Media reported recently that the city’s maritime and fishery administration had deployed two unmanned eVTOL fixed-rotor aircraft to beef up law enforcement.
The two drones, with a flight time of 250 minutes and a range of 200 km each, can cover the entire sections of sea under Longkou’s jurisdiction.
Equipped with visual light and infrared lenses, the aircraft automatically track target objects, identify suspected individuals and vessels at sea and collect evidence of violations of law.
The drones then send back the proof via a built-in image transmission platform in real time to the dispatch center to be confirmed.
Law enforcement officers can also shout commands through a drone-mounted loudspeaker to force suspected vessels to stop and undergo checks.
This has enabled maritime police to detect and pursue alleged offenders at night and crack down on illegal fishing during imposition of a seasonal fishing ban.
