[SatNews] GeoEye, Inc. (Nasdaq: GEOY) has won a contract from the Republic of the Maldives for a vessel monitoring system that is being developed for fisheries management and safety.

This information services project expands GeoEye's expertise and presence in location-based information products and services. As part of this contract, GeoEye will build the secure infrastructure for a countrywide vessel monitoring system and supply ten Osprey Personal Tracker™ terminals for a trial deployment. GeoEye's vessel monitoring system will display vessel positions and consolidate fish catch reports from the Osprey terminals in near-real-time for review by fisheries management personnel at the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture. The vessel monitoring system also provides the customer with two-way text communication by satellite for both routine and emergency purposes. An integrated "panic button" on each Osprey unit will alert Maldives emergency services to vessels in distress. Vessel positions and messaging will be tracked securely through a comprehensive Web-based control system and database that will include satellite-derived oceanographic charts that GeoEye will update daily. The Osprey Personal Tracker terminals are manufactured by EMS Global Tracking and sold by GeoEye within the commercial and government fisheries sectors. These terminals report latitude/longitude (GPS) positions on a pre-programmed frequency using the Inmarsat global satellite constellation.