The Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry, the world's second largest shipping registry, has begun testing a biometric ID card for seafarers. The technology for the ID card is based on a two-dimensional, '2D Superscript' bar code manufactured by Oxfordshire, England-based Datastrip. The registry has approximately 2,000 vessels and 500,000 active seafarers. The undertaking is designed to help improve maritime security by providing a counterfeit-proof identity document. Each ID card will include a tiny bar code containing either one or two fingerprint templates, a digitized version of the cardholder's photograph, and several pages of encoded personal information. The cardholder's identity will be verified aboard vessels and at ports of entry with Datastrip's DSVerify2D, which the company says is the first portable biometric I.D. card reader capable of decoding fingerprints, text and photographs with one swipe. The reader includes an optical fingerprint scanner that can match the stored fingerprint template with the cardholder's live fingerprint, preventing identity fraud.