Polar Watch

SAR detection
SAR detection
SAR detection
Product Dashboard
SAR detection
Product Vessel Tracker
Product Satellite Request
SAR detection

Inspiration

Canada controls one of the world’s largest ocean territories, yet illegal fishing and dark ships slip through surveillance gaps. We wanted to create a low-cost, scalable way to protect fisheries, commerce, and sovereignty

What it does

Polar Watch detects vessels that go dark by fusing AIS data with satellite imagery. It generates risk scores, predicts ETAs, and creates intercept routes. Civilian users (fisheries, insurers, shippers) cut losses, while defence users (CAF) gain actionable sovereignty tools.

How we built it

• AIS gap analysis to identify suspicious vessel behavior
• Satellite imagery integration (SAR + SkyWatch optical)
• AI models (CFAR + YOLO) to detect vessels and confirm dark activity
• TaskingScore algorithm to decide when to order new imagery (cost-optimized)
• Dashboard with dual civilian/defence views: evidence packages for fisheries & insurers, intercept planning for CAF

Challenges we ran into

• Building a working demo in under 7 hours

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Framing a product that’s fundable and scalable beyond the hackathon
• Functional dark ship detection pipeline with demo-ready dashboard

What we learned

What's next for Polar Watch

• Pilot with Fisheries & Oceans Canada and insurance partners within 6 months
• Build SaaS dashboard with subscription + per-task pricing
• Engage CAF for Arctic sovereignty trials in year 2
• Long-term: launch a dedicated CubeSat cluster with NordSpace for Canadian-controlled Arctic route intelligence