The Great Lakes have rarely ever been considered a hotbed of illicit drug activity or center for illegal immigration.

But that hasn’t stopped US government agencies and the company behind surveillance sailing drones from treating the region as such. The US Coast Guard recently announced it has launched an armada of at least six sailing drones in the Great Lakes this summer in an attempt to, in part, “track illicit activity”.

At 33ft long, Saildrone Inc’s Voyager surveillance vessels can operate for 100 days at a time without needing servicing. The California-headquartered company claims the drones can operate for months without refueling and can “track vessels across wide maritime regions”.

“They help the coast guard to maximize its awareness and understanding of cross-border maritime activity, and to help detect or deter vessels that may be involved in illicit activities such as illegal fishing, human trafficking, or narcotics trafficking,” said Anthony Popiel, a US Coast Guard UAS program coordinator based in the Great Lakes.

Part of a $15.5m contract between the coast guard and Saildrone Inc funded by Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act”, the drones are equipped with radar, cameras and artificial intelligence systems.

But rights groups and some locals are concerned that the program could become a data collection project, impinging on people’s expectation of being able to take to the lakes without fear of being surveilled.

“These vessels are equipped with radar and optical sensors capable of continuous monitoring, and they operate under what’s called a ‘contractor-owned, operated’ model, meaning a private company, Saildrone, is collecting the surveillance data and selling it to the government,” says Petra Molnar, the author of The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, and associate director of the Refugee Law Lab at York University in Toronto.

“This is a very troubling arrangement from a privacy and accountability standpoint, as we have very little public information about data retention, who can access what data is collected, or how people using the region recreationally [can] be swept up in a data system built for border enforcement.”

Five US states – Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York – share a Great Lakes water border with Canada.

The Trump administration has long accused Canada of allowing illicit drugs into the US, a charge that has fueled crushing tariffs on Canadian goods headed south of the border. However, data shows that tens of millions of dollars’ worth of drugs are seized by Canadian border agents after entering Canada from the US every year.

A representative of the US Customs and Border Protection based in Detroit did not respond to queries from the Guardian asking for a breakdown of how much of the more than 4,300lbs of cocaine and nearly 1,000lbs of methamphetamines seized during the 2025 fiscal year refers to drugs entering the US from Canada.

Moreover, there have been few reported cases of drugs being interred on the Great Lakes’ actual waterways. The US Coast Guard, for its part, declined to share specific figures on unlawful activity such as drug seizures and undocumented migration “for operational security reasons”.

On top of that, the presence of surveillance sailing drones on the Great Lakes may fuel an inaccurate narrative among water users – around 210,000 recreational boats use the five lakes – that the waterways have become unsafe.

But authorities admit that is not the case.

“There is no indication that safety on the Great Lakes border waters has changed. The coast guard’s deployment of unmanned surface vehicles is a proactive step to further strengthen maritime domain awareness, surveillance, and safety throughout the region,” a spokesperson for the US Coast Guard said.

Saildrone declined to comment on questions posed by the Guardian asking about the number of boats expected to be deployed in the border lakes and when that would happen.

With an area the size of the United Kingdom, experts say that the effectiveness of deploying these watercraft on the Great Lakes may be questionable.

“Thirty-three-foot vessels – recent announcements suggest the deployment may now involve as many as 16 – cannot actually provide meaningful tactical coverage of that expanse,” Molnar said.

“What they can do is generate data, and that is precisely the point of this type of technological experiment: it is less about real-time interception by one of these vessels but rather it is about building out a persistent maritime domain awareness infrastructure.”

For Ryan Weekes, the commodore of the Cleveland-based InterCity Yacht Club, an organization founded in 1968 and one of just a handful of Black-run boat clubs in the US, the presence of drones creates some concern.

“I understand the importance of maritime security and protecting our waterways. At the same time, I believe there should be transparency whenever new surveillance technology is deployed,” he said.

“Boaters should have a clear understanding of what information is being collected, how it is being used, who has access to it, and what safeguards are in place to protect privacy. Maintaining public trust is an important part of any security initiative.”

Still, others feel that surveillance drones may be helpful.

“The Great Lakes are a very soft border with Canada,” said Steve Hales of the Port Clinton Yacht Club that’s situated on the south-western coast of Lake Erie.

“To protect that, we need to have more coast guard presence or something like the drones.”

Last October, Saildrone, whose vessels have been deployed on seas and oceans around the world, announced a $50m investment from weapons company Lockheed Martin to equip its 65-ft unmanned vessels “with lethal, combat-proven defense technology” such as the company’s JAGM missile launcher.

A coast guard official, however, said it did not envision the use of such systems on the Great Lakes in the future.

Last year, Saildrone appointed John Mustin, a retired vice-admiral who spent 34 years in the US Navy, as its president. Its drones were previously used on Lake Erie in 2023 when deployed for scientific research purposes. Currently, the surveillance vessels’ locations can be tracked on the Marine Traffic website, where they are described as pleasure crafts.

Lake Erie, home to cities such as Buffalo, Toledo and Cleveland on the US side, has the highest number of recreational boaters of the Great Lakes that share a maritime border with Canada.

“Any new security initiative should be evaluated based on demonstrated need and effectiveness,” said Weekes. “As someone who spends considerable time on Lake Erie, I believe maintaining public trust is just as important as maintaining public safety.”