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December 12, 2025<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n How Dark-Fleet Ships Use A Digital Trick to Disappear\u2014And How to Find Them<\/p>\n An oil tanker seized by the U.S. this week reportedly used a technique that scrambled its location, but new advanced visual tracking can help expose such ships\u2019 true coordinates<\/p>\n By Eve Lu edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n US Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/p>\n An oil tanker seized by U.S. forces off the coast of Venezuela this week has shone a light on a technique that experts say so-called dark-fleet ships frequently use to disguise their location. Known as \u201cspoofing,\u201d the method involves manipulating a ship\u2019s automatic identification system (AIS), a radio tracker that broadcasts its position and identifiers to other vessels and ports. Instead of broadcasting its real-time coordinates, a spoofing ship sends out a fake location.<\/p>\n The tanker, which was previously sanctioned for alleged smuggling in 2022, is a large crude carrier with capacity for at least 1.1 million barrels of oil. When it was seized, it was reportedly sailing under the flag of Guyana, although the Guyanese government has said it was not authorized to do so. U.S. officials have not disclosed how they found the tanker. But according to Windward\u2014a large maritime data company\u2014it is allgedly thought to have been part of \u201cdark fleet\u201d network of tankers that secretly move sanctioned oil around the world using deceptive tactics such as fake flags or AIS manipulation.<\/p>\n AIS is mandated by international law for large ships above a certain tonnage. But dark-fleet oil tankers have long manipulated it in order to skirt scrutiny, says Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at Kpler, a global trade analysis firm.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Smith notes that the seized tanker\u2019s AIS signal was spoofing its location in late October, with the broadcast falsely giving the ship\u2019s position as off the coast of Guyana. But satellite imagery told a different tale\u2014the ship was actually near Venezuela. \u201cBasically, we have the images to know that it was not where it said it was,\u201d Smith says. Beyond satellite imagery, he adds, officials can also pull information from port agents, ship brokers, vessel lineups and other sources to track where tankers and their cargo are and where they are going.<\/p>\n TankerTrackers.com, a company that tracks global crude oil shipment, has been using advanced visual tracking to photograph and trace thousands of tankers worldwide. That has enabled TankerTrackers.com to build its own visual search engine to rapidly identify tankers, says Samir Madani, co-founder of the company. The approach helps to determine whether a tanker is spoofing its AIS location: the company\u2019s analysts can spot a tanker\u2019s location in satellite imagery and then compare that information with where the ship\u2019s AIS signal claims it is. If there\u2019s a mismatch, then the ship is almost certainly spoofing.<\/p>\n So while some tankers are still deploying spoofing successfully, newer tracking technology is making it harder to pull the gambit off.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 12, 2025 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm How Dark-Fleet Ships Use A Digital Trick to Disappear\u2014And How to Find Them An oil tanker seized by the U.S. this week reportedly used a technique that scrambled its location, but new advanced visual tracking can help expose such ships\u2019 true coordinates By Eve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[2241,14621,268,2183,20593,20485,20594],"class_list":{"0":"post-37132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-detection","9":"tag-evade","10":"tag-oil","11":"tag-reportedly","12":"tag-spoofing","13":"tag-tanker","14":"tag-u-s-seized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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