What is SeaLight?

SeaLight uses commercially available technology to shed light on the maritime “gray zone”—that is, things that happen at sea that someone would rather the public not know about.

Common gray-zone activities we track and report include:

Harassment of legal activities such as responsible fishing, security operations or hydrocarbon exploration within a nation’s own exclusive economic zone
Illegal incursions into other countries’ waters
Intimidation measures such as vessel swarming
Outpost and artificial island building
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing

Where did SeaLight come from?

SeaLight was started by a team of volunteers at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, which uses entrepreneurial methods to solve difficult defense and security challenges.

Why does SeaLight focus so much attention on China’s activities?

Simple. China has by far the world’s most expansive and aggressive maritime gray zone programs:

China’s immense and illegal “nine-dashed line” claim of the entire South China Sea is pushing its neighbors out of their legitimate waters and attempting to claim their resources for its own
China has built a huge paramilitary force, or maritime militia, which it routinely deploys together with its coast guard for the purpose of harassing other nations’ legal activities
Its ambitious artificial island building program has wrought havoc on the marine environment and militarized the South China Sea
Outpost and artificial island building
It has deployed a huge and growing distant-water fishing fleet across the globe and is dramatically depleting the world’s fish supplies