PARIS — Satellite-based environmental data collection and positioning service provider CLS of France will build an oceanography center for the government of Indonesia under a contract valued at $30 million, Toulouse, France-based CLS said.
CLS, which is partly owned by the French space agency, CNES, and by France’s IFREMER oceanography institute, will deliver the center in 2014. It will include a satellite image-reception center for high-resolution radar data and a research and surveillance facility.
CLS said one of the main goals of the center is to reduce illegal fishing in Indonesian territorial waters, an activity CLS said deprives Indonesia and its fishermen of some $2 billion in annual revenue. Of special concern is illegal tuna fishing.
CLS said it has already installed 3,000 Indonesian commercial fishing vessels with satellite-based location devices since 2004 as part of Indonesia’s effort to manage its fishing stocks.
CLS has 475 employees and reported sales of 79 million euros ($103 million) in 2012. The company is perhaps best known for its Argos network of 21,000 buoys and transmitters placed on wildlife that send data to satellites.
