Detecting Inshore Ships in Satellite Images

Ship detection in satellite images is used for monitoring illegal fishing and violation of coastal waters or general maritime management. SAR images has been extensively used in this manner. Recently, researchers have started using optical satellite images for ship detection. These studies can be divided into two categories as inshore and offshore ship detection. Offshore ship detection is a relatively easy problem. But, inshore ship detection is a challenging problem in which ships are located closely. In this study, we handle this problem and propose a novel method assuming we have the harbor information beforehand. In the method, the mask is morphologically thickened in single steps and adjacent ships are detected with a contour following method. Moreover, a shape model for the ships is used to eliminate false alarms. We tested the proposed method on high resolution satellite images and achieved promising results.