Voyage plan is an important tool to ensure the safe navigation of the ship, and a defective voyage plan may lead to the unseaworthiness of the ship. Traditionally, the Second Officer pays more attention to the voyage plan on waypoints, UKC, no go area, berth-to-berth, and other items that PSCOs may raise deficiency.
Nowadays, with the increasingly strict requirements for environmental protection in the shipping industry, PSC inspections have started to focus on the environmental protection related content in the passage plan, argues Capt. Zhao Qingwei, Marine Safety Manager of Dasin shipping.
As per SOLAS V Regulation 34:
Prior to proceeding to sea, the master shall ensure that the intended voyage has been planned using the appropriate nautical charts and nautical publications. The voyage plan shall identify a route which takes into account the marine environmental protection measures that apply, and avoids as far as possible actions and activities which could cause damage to the environment.
During a vessel’s PSC inspection at a Korean port, the PSCO issued a voyage plan deficiency related to environmental protection:
The ship’s voyage plan did not match with SOLAS Chapter V reg 34 especially marine environment protection part.
Based on above deficiency raised by PSCO, we have collected relevant information and summarized the following environmental issues that may need to be considered in passage planning:
1. Environment-related reporting system
Some countries, in order to protect the marine environment, have specified many environmental reporting areas along their coasts, such as GRAET BARRIER REEF REEFREP in Australia, CORAL SHIPREP and RIGHTWHALES REPORTING AREA in the United States, NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE – Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. When preparing the voyage plan, refer to the ADMIRALTY List of Radio Signals and mark these reporting systems inside the passage plan.
2. IMO Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA)
IMO A.982(24) defines PSSA as an area that needs special protection through action by IMO because of its significance for recognized ecological or socio-economic or scientific reasons and which may be vulnerable to damage by international maritime activities. Currently, IMO has adopted 15 PSSAs. The protection measures used in PSSAs are:
(1) designation of special area under MARPOL 73/78
(2) adoption of ship routing or reporting system under SOLAS
3. Special requirements of the MARPOL Convention
When preparing the voyage plan, to consider MARPOL 73/78 Annex I, II, V special areas and Annex VI emission control areas, when the ship enters or leaves the special area, the relevant regulations should be noted on the voyage plan.
The requirements for the disposal of oily waste, sewage, garbage (e.g. distance from the nearest land, ship speed requirements, etc.) should also be marked in the voyage plan to remind the relevant officers/engineers not to violate the relevant regulations.
4. Local port regulation
In addition, if the port of call has special regulations for garbage and sewage, it should also be noted and reminded to each officer/engineer.
5. Requirement of the Ballast Water Convention
When preparing the voyage plan, it is also important to pay attention to the requirements of Ballast water convention, Also be aware that some countries have special regulations for ballast water. It is recommended that notes on ballast water exchange and reporting be made in the voyage plan.
6. Other environmental requirement
When planning the voyage, the requirements of environmental protection-related plans such as SOPEP, PC-SOPEP, NT-VRP, CA-VCP, VGP, SEEMP, GMP, EU-MRV etc. are also taken into consideration.
7. Shortcomings of using ECDIS
The requirements of most conventions regarding environmental control limits are based on the baseline of the territorial sea or the nearest land, ridiculously most of the ECDIS can not display this baseline especially in disputed waters , which leads many officers to measure distances based solely on the land on the charts, and thus many discharges are illegal. Therefore, when preparing and executing the voyage plan, the officer should pay special attention to this.
Overall, with the accelaration of digitalization within shipping industry, more and more ships are not only equipped with ECDIS, but also installed with special passage planning software, through which (such as Navi-Planner, passagemanager etc) the voyage plan, conforming to the regulatory requirements, can be easily realized. Some ECIDS have also special voyage plan checklists that allow officers to further verify that environmental requirements are being met. Moreover, regarding environmental compliance, a number of digital tools (such as EnviroManager and EMH) have emerged in the shipping industry to assist crews in monitoring whether a ship is in a position where it can legally discharge.
The views presented are only those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
