Federal Communications Commission prohibition on use of AIS for fishing buoys

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued Enforcement Advisory No. 2018-04 on November 28, 2018 advising fishermen and merchants that its rules prohibit the use of Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) frequencies on fishing buoys. The FCC authorizes AIS solely for marine navigation purposes and believes that using it on fishing buoys would disrupt maritime communications and increase the risk of accidents. The FCC may impose substantially monetary penalties - thousands of dollars per day - on anyone advertising, selling, or using non-compliant buoys or other non-compliant AIS equipment.

The full notice is available at:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-18-1211A1.pdf

More information is available from the U.S. Coast Guard website at:

https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=AISFAQ.