According to Britannia Club, in order to regulate ship navigation order the coast of Nantong and to improve navigation efficiency and safety, Jiangsu and Shanghai MSA jointly issued a Notice on February 4, 2024, on the announcement of the public routes and anchorages along the coast of Nantong.
Brief Explanation of the Public Routes along the Coast of Nantong by MSA
- In any case, the public route is only used as the recommended passage forships navigating in the coastal waters of Nantong, and is for the reference of
ship navigation personnel only. It does not exempt ship navigation personnel from their responsibility for the safe navigation of the ship. - The direction of the turning point on the center line described in the Notice isfor the purpose of indicating the route position and direction only, and is not theroute and course that recommended for ships to use. It is recommended that ships navigate as close to the right side of the center line as possible.
- The route width is the theoretical width. Due to limitations such as natural environment and navigation conditions, the width of a route is limited to theactual width of the navigable waters.
- The ship shall reasonably formulate her passage plan according to her characteristics and the real environment of the sea area through which she is navigating, and with reference to the latest nautical charts and publications.
- The ships shall strictly comply with the COLREGS, 1972 and the relevant provisions published by the competent authority. When a ship is navigating within the route, attention should be paid to the change of the sounding depth to prevent the ship from grounding accidents. The ship shall navigate with extreme caution when entering, leaving or crossing the route, passing through the dense traffic waters or the intersection waters of the route.
- To ensure smooth navigation and prevent collisions and other maritime traffic accidents, ships should avoid mooring, anchoring or operating (including fishing operations) in the waters of the route as much as possible.
Suggestions
- The announcement and adoption of public routes and main channels along the coast of Nantong provide strong guarantees for ships safely entering and leaving Nantong seaports. It is recommended that when ships navigating in these waters should, as far as possible, give priority to the use of public routes and channels published by the MSA.
- The public routes entering and leaving Nantong seaports intersect with thenorth-south customary route (inner route), and a large number of merchant ships converged in this water area, forming crossing, head-on and other situations. Therefore ships should strictly comply with COLREGS in order to avoid the occurrence of collision accidents when navigating in the public routes in these waters.
- It is worth noting that there are a large number of fishing boats operating in these waters, thus ships should proactively take reasonable measures to pass and clear all fishing boats, including their fishing gear and nets.
- Due to the influence of natural conditions and surrounding environment, there are numerous shoals in the water area off Nantong seaports. When a ship is navigating in the vicinity of the shoals, particularly in the channel adjacent to the shoals, special attention should be paid to prevent the occurrence of grounding accidents.
