IMO approves amendments on ship routeing systems

The IMO’s Sub-Committee on Navigation, Communications and Search and Rescue (NCSR), 7th session, January 13-24, discussed and decided on a variety of important issues for the industry, including amendments on ships’ routeing measures.

The approval was later issued to the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) for adoption. Specifically, the amendments made on ships’ routeing measures concern:

• an additional two-way route in the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait, in Far North Queensland, Australia, intended to serve also as an associated protective measure for the Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) in the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait.
• amended conditions of use for the two-way route in the TSS “Off Ushant” in order to remove ambiguities and take into account technological developments, in France.
• harmonized and consolidated ships’ routeing systems in Norway (“Off the western coast of Norway”, “Off the coast of southern Norway” and “Off the coast of Norway from Vardø to Røst”), each with traffic separation schemes (TSS) and recommended routes, aiming to optimize the effect of the routeing systems and apply them to the same categories of ships.
• amended TSS “Slupska Bank” with the aim of reducing the danger of groundings in the area of shallows detected further east of the existing TSS in and outside the Polish territorial seas, in the southern part of the Baltic Sea.

The above proposed routeing measures will be forwarded to IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) 102nd session in May for adoption and according to expectations will be implemented six months thereafter.

Concluding, during the session the attendees also reviewed the modernization of the global maritime distress and safety system (GMDSS).