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World Aids to Navigation Day 2025 (WATONDAY2025)
Published on 30 Jun ‘25
World Aids to Navigation Day 2025: Bridging the Physical and Digital in Marine Navigation
World Aids to Navigation Day 2025 #WATONDAY2025

July 1st marks World Marine Aids to Navigation Day 2025 (#WATONDAY2025). This global event is organized by IALA and hosted this year in London. The theme is “The role of physical Aids to Navigation in a Digital Future”. This is especially relevant as the maritime industry accelerates its digital transformation.

At Ecocoast, we see this theme not as a future goal. We’re actively building it through our ongoing projects and innovations in smart navigation and buoy systems. We’re proud to be at the forefront of this evolution. We blend physical infrastructure with digital technologies, ensuring safer, smarter and more sustainable navigation for all.

The evolving role of Aids to Navigation for World Marine Aids to Navigation Day 2025

The evolving role of Aids to Navigation (AtoN) is central to World Marine Aids to Navigation Day 2025. AtoN have long served as essential guides for vessels, marking safe passage through ports, waterways and coastal areas. But today, physical AtoNs are no longer just visual or passive markers. They’re becoming intelligent nodes in a connected marine network.

This transformation is driven by real-time data, two-way communication and remote monitoring, among others. All of these make AtoNs more efficient, sustainable and responsive to changing marine conditions.

Here’s how we’re contributing to that shift.

Smart Lanterns: From signalling to monitoring

Smart marine lanternsThe future of navigation is not just about marking locations. Innovative marine navigation combines sustainability with safety. It’s about intelligent, connected systems that communicate and adapt. Our smart marine lanterns are a perfect example of this new era. They reduce environmental impact while enhancing operational efficiency and navigational safety.

Our commitment to innovation aligns with the goals of World Marine Aids to Navigation Day 2025. Our smart lanterns come with a remote monitoring platform. We enable remote monitoring through secure, multi-network connectivity. These lanterns use advanced communication channels, including GSM, Satellite and LoRa. They transmit and receive data in real-time, even in the most remote offshore maritime environments.

Operators can detect and resolve issues from anywhere through a cyber-secure portal. This reduces the need for resource-intensive site visits and enhances navigational safety.

Integrated monitoring tools provide complete visibility of lantern performance, enabling proactive maintenance and optimization of resource allocation.

Maintenance Software for AtoN: Maintaining navigation systems at scale

Managing a network of Aids to Navigation across vast and often challenging environments is no small task. That’s why we offer a powerful remote maintenance software solution, designed specifically for AtoNs. This platform enables two-way communication to diagnose and resolve issues without physical visits.

Intelligent alarm systems automatically flag anomalies. The software leverages predictive analytics to identify potential issues before they become critical, sending alerts for drift, low light levels, equipment failures or scheduled maintenance.

💡💡💡 This feature significantly reduces the need for physical maintenance. One of the main benefits of adopting smart marine lanterns. Traditionally, maintaining thousands of lanterns meant frequent boat trips with at least 3 crew members, hundreds of manhours and a significant carbon footprint. By adopting smart lanterns with remote monitoring and maintenance, we reduce maintenance-related visits by 25% for one Abu Dhabi client, saving 200 manhours annually and cutting emissions by over a ton each year.

Smart Mooring Buoys: Transforming marinas

Smart mooring buoysAs marinas and anchorages become busier, the need for smart mooring solutions grows. Our smart mooring buoys are designed to meet this challenge.

These innovative buoys provide real-time occupancy data and berth management, making it easy for marina operators to manage reservations and optimize space.

A mobile app is available for boaters, allowing them to instantly check availability, reserve a spot and receive notifications about their berth. It also shows available marina services, events and local amenities, facilitating communication between marina staff and users. All from their smartphones.

Leveraging camera and AI technology, the system can monitor parameters like the number of boats passing through, boat identification and speed detection just to name a few, ensuring both safety and efficient traffic flow within marinas.

This digital solution, currently installed for the first time in the UAE, not only streamlines berth reservations and enhances security, but also sets a new benchmark for smart marina operations in the region.

Water Quality Monitoring & Data Buoys: Turning marine environments into information hubs

While not officially classified as Aids to Navigation (AtoN) under IALA guidelines, Water Quality Monitoring Buoys play a complementary role in the broader ecosystem of smart marine infrastructure.

They use sensors to continuously monitor water quality, pollution levels and even climate conditions. The buoys transmit data in real time to cloud-based platforms. Port authorities, marine contractors, coastal agencies and other stakeholders can then make informed decisions quickly. This approach not just improves navigational safety, but also enhances environmental stewardship.

Our WQM buoys are designed for durability and sustainability, operating autonomously thanks to integrated solar panels and marine-grade construction. Whether supporting aquaculture, offshore energy or marine projects, these buoys provide critical insights that help protect and manage our marine environment more effectively.

They monitor essential parameters like temperature, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen and more. All delivered through remote transmission to reduce on-site inspections and support proactive environmental management.

If you’d like to learn more about how our water quality monitoring buoys support sustainability and environmental protection, check out our detailed blog post on sediment control with silt curtains and WQM buoys.

Leading the way into a digital maritime future on World Marine Aids to Navigation Day 2025

World Marine Aids to Navigation Day 2025 is a reminder that the future of navigation lies at the intersection of physical reliability and digital intelligence. At Ecocoast, we’re committed to developing solutions that not only guide vessels safely but also provide valuable data, streamline operations and protect our marine environments.

As industry leaders gather in London to discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead, Ecocoast stands ready to support the maritime community with innovative solutions and expertise. Together, we can ensure that the world’s waterways remain safe, sustainable, and ready for the digital age.

Ready to make your AtoNs smarter? Want to explore how digital AtoN solutions can improve your marine operations? Contact us to speak with our team or view our full range of navigation and safety products.

#WATONDAY2025 #SafeNavigation

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