UK: IMO – Modernization of Distress and Safety Communication at Sea

United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) has held a meeting in the Sub-Committee on Radiocommunications and Search and Rescue.

The Sub-Committee considers it necessary to revise and modernize the regulations on maritime distress and safety communication, the so-called GMDSS system. A final decision will be made by the IMO Maritime Safety Committee (MSC).

Special Advisor Carsten Jensen from the Danish Maritime Authority says that, if the work is initiated, it is expected to last until 2017 or longer.

At the meeting, a possible coming version of the well-known NAVTEX system was presented to the Sub-Committee. This system is used to transmit navigational warnings as text messages. The proposed system, which is called “NAVDAT”, can transmit large data quantities both as text and illustrations.

“It may be an advantage to see a wreck, a lost container, an inactive buoy, a special area of danger or anything else placed on a chartlet rather than to merely read the coordinates so I hope that it will become a part of any revision”, says Carsten Jensen.

All distress calls must be heard

The procedures for personal equipment could also be a part of a possible revision:

“There is a tendency for more persons using personal means of alarming and tracking. They do not always observed the fundamental principles on the use of this type of equipment, which could, in the worst case, mean that some distress calls are not heard. I also hope that this will become part of any revision of the GMDSS system,” says Carsten Jensen.

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Source: DMA, April 2, 2012