Rendezvous is an event when vessels meet with one another on the water. Ship-to-Ship transfers are part of normal operations, but introduce challenges in supply chain tracking. 

Transshipments refers to shifting cargo between vessels. In fishing, this may commonly occur between a larger vessel, the mother ship, and a smaller vessel, where the mother ship may be better refrigeration or processing equipment. 

Bunkering is the process of refueling at sea. 

Vessels may rendezvous for a variety of other reasons, some legal, others more nefarious (e.g, narcotics trafficking).

Skylight attempts to detect these behaviors in through events: Standard Rendezvous and Dark Rendezvous. More on both of these events in this section.

More resources: 

• TMT -  Transhipment Case Studies from the Gulf of Guinea
• Windward - Bunkering