A system for monitoring a plurality of marine vessels using a satellite network, the system comprising: a plurality of satellite payloads to be carried by respective satellites , each satellite payload comprising a communications interface configured to communicate via the satellite network, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver configured to communicate with the plurality of marine vessels , and a controller cooperating with the communications interface and the RF transceiver to obtain automatic identification system (AIS) data including vessel position and call sign information via the RF transceiver , and communicate the AIS system data via the communications interface ; and a terrestrial station configured to receive the AIS system data and determine therefrom a rendezvous between marine vessels which pass within a threshold distance for greater than a threshold time characterized in that the system further comprising at least one source for aerial marine imagery; and the terrestrial station is configured to receive the aerial marine imagery and combine aerial marine imagery and AIS data, wherein the terrestrial station employs a computational operations distributed among a plurality of computing devices which are at different geographical locations and connected by a communications network. a plurality of satellite payloads to be carried by respective satellites , each satellite payload comprising a communications interface configured to communicate via the satellite network, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver configured to communicate with the plurality of marine vessels , and a controller cooperating with the communications interface and the RF transceiver to obtain automatic identification system (AIS) data including vessel position and call sign information via the RF transceiver , and communicate the AIS system data via the communications interface ; and a communications interface configured to communicate via the satellite network, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver configured to communicate with the plurality of marine vessels , and a controller cooperating with the communications interface and the RF transceiver to obtain automatic identification system (AIS) data including vessel position and call sign information via the RF transceiver , and communicate the AIS system data via the communications interface ; and obtain automatic identification system (AIS) data including vessel position and call sign information via the RF transceiver , and communicate the AIS system data via the communications interface ; and a terrestrial station configured to receive the AIS system data and determine therefrom a rendezvous between marine vessels which pass within a threshold distance for greater than a threshold time characterized in that the system further comprising at least one source for aerial marine imagery; and the terrestrial station is configured to receive the aerial marine imagery and combine aerial marine imagery and AIS data, wherein the terrestrial station employs a computational operations distributed among a plurality of computing devices which are at different geographical locations and connected by a communications network. <EOS>