(Lisbon, 18 October 2011) 4 times per day, 7 days per week, merchant ships around the world broadcast information about their position to satellites via a system called Long Range Identification and Tracking, or LRIT. Information from ships is relayed by satellites to Data Centres around the world, and the LRIT system enables maritime authorities to keep a constant eye on the position of ships that form a part of their country’s fleet. On 18 October 2011, EMSA becomes the operator of the LRIT‐International Data Exchange, or ‘LRIT‐IDE’, the central node which acts like a ‘switchboard’ to manage the flow of LRIT information between various LRIT Data Centres around the world.