• Persons rescued at sea - draft SOLAS, SAR amendments developed
• Places of refuge
• Measures to enhance maritime security
• Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS)
• Inmarsat-A phase out date confirmed
• NAVTEX equipment performance standards

Persons rescued at sea - draft SOLAS, SAR amendments developed

Draft amendments to both SOLAS chapter V and the SAR Convention concerning the treatment of persons rescued at sea, and/or asylum seekers, refugees and stowaways were developed. The amendments will be submitted to MSC 77 for approval before they are forwarded, as amended, to MSC 78 for adoption. In addition, COMSAR has recommended that guidelines on the subject be drawn up for Masters and Contracting Governments.

Following a number of incidents that highlighted concerns surrounding the treatment of persons rescued at sea, IMO's 22nd Assembly adopted resolution A.920 on Review of safety measures and procedures for the treatment of persons rescued at sea. The prime concern with respect to such incidents was that, unless the matter was considered in all its aspects and appropriate action was taken, there might be a negative impact on the integrity of the global search and rescue system which the Organization has put in place.

The Sub-Committee received the reports of an inter-agency meeting of United Nations Organizations and Programmes, held at UNHCR Headquarters in July 2002, and an informal SAR meeting on the subject held in Sweden, in September of 2002. A document prepared at the latter meeting was used as the basis for the draft amendments to the two conventions.

It was felt that to assist SOLAS Contracting Governments to understand fully their treaty obligations, and to provide the Master with clear guidance as to the procedures to be followed under the new regulations, additional guidelines, possibly containing a harmonized interpretation of the new regulations, would be IMO's answer to the issue for the time being.

The Sub-Committee agreed that there was a need to strike a balance between the obligations of the Master to proceed to the assistance of persons in distress at sea and the obligations of Contracting Governments to permit and assist the Master in disembarking these persons to a place of safety within an acceptable period of time. A number of delegations were of the opinion that the balance was well struck by the text emanating from the meeting in Sweden but that additional guidance was needed to assist the Master, on the one hand and the Contracting Governments, on the other, to clearly understand the meaning of the new provisions elaborated.

Since neither the SOLAS nor the SAR Conventions have, for good reasons, a mechanism to determine the legal status of persons in distress at sea, it was considered necessary to look at other international instruments outside IMO's remit to address and find solutions related to post-SAR operational issues, within the inter-agency framework initiated by the Secretary-General of IMO in autumn 2001. The Sub-Committee recognized that the SOLAS and SAR issues needed to be addressed separately from those related to status assessment and resettlement of refugees. The latter needed to be considered by States, assisted by UNHCR and other competent organizations, in order to develop burden-sharing agreements and procedures and to discourage people from trafficking and smuggling.

Places of refuge

In continuing its work on places of refuge, the COMSAR Sub-Committee suggested that the duties of the proposed Maritime Assistance Services (MAS) could be undertaken by existing Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centres (MRCCs). The Sub-Committee had been asked to review the draft Guidelines on places of refuge for ships in need of assistance, along with the associated draft Assembly resolution and the draft Assembly resolution on the establishment of MAS, to establish whether there was any conflict with existing SAR procedures. It was agreed to invite the MSC to instruct NAV 49, when finalizing the text of the two draft Assembly resolutions to ensure that the term "distress" is used in the text as defined in the SAR Convention, provision is made that there is one single point of contact for communication by the Master which should be the MRCC, and the MRCC could, if possible, be given the MAS functions.

Although recognizing that it was naturally for the Contracting Governments to decide which organization should be tasked with the MAS functions, it was felt that the duties of the MAS were primarily concerned with communication and could well be undertaken by the MRCC; moreover the establishment of a new authority with similar functions to those of the MRCC could be confusing for communication by the Master; and the MRCCs were normally the only contact points for the ship available 24 hours a day and they already had an obligation to communicate with all parties/authorities concerned relating to ships in distress or in difficulties, which could develop into distress situations.

Measures to enhance maritime security

Performance standards for a ship security alert system, adopted by resolution MSC.136(76), were examined and draft amendments were prepared for adoption by MSC 77. A draft MSC circular - Guidance on provision of ship security alert systems, was prepared for approval by MSC 77. Draft recommendations on functional requirements for long-range identification and tracking of ships were developed for submission to MSC 77 and NAV 49 for consideration.

Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS)

The Sub-Committee amended COMSAR/Circ.24, the list of NAVAREA Co-ordinators, and instructed the Secretariat to issue it as a new COMSAR Circular 30.

Draft proposed amendments to SOLAS regulation IV/15.9 to clarify the testing and maintenance requirements for satellite EPIRBs were also agreed.

A minor amendment to the International SafetyNET Manual was made, correcting the borders between Navareas XI and XIII. This error is also reflected in the current Inmarsat-C MES software and in the coding of current EGC receivers, with the implication that the NAVAREA XIII messages are not received properly throughout NAVAREA XIII. Only new Inmarsat-C equipment, produced after 1 January 2005 will have to incorporate this change, existing equipment should not have to be modified. Contrary to current operational guidelines, the facility for addressing messages to temporary geographical areas might be exceptionally used in this specific area for navigational warnings while this problem existed.

The Sub-Committee considered a report by the Chairman of the International NAVTEX Co-ordinating Panel on the status of NAVTEX services worldwide and the issues currently being addressed by the Panel. The work of the Panel continues to be dominated by issues relating to interference between stations operating on the International NAVTEX service. As well as addressing specific instances of interference, the Panel continued to work with concerned administrations and other organizations on measures to prevent interference. Such measures included working with the World Meteorological Organization, through their Expert Team on Maritime Safety Services, to examine the possibility of shortening meteorological forecasts by introducing standard abbreviations and formatting, and reducing the volume of data broadcast on the international NAVTEX service by encouraging administrations to transfer national language and national requirements to national broadcasts. The target date of this migration remains 1 January 2005, however, the Panel expressed concern that there was currently little momentum from the relevant Administrations to meet this target date.

It was agreed that establishment of a system monitoring and reporting (SMR) programme for the GMDSS as a whole was important for the efficiency of the GMDSS, and that it should be a task for IMO. Subject to approval by the MSC, the Sub-Committee agreed that a GMDSS-SMR Voluntary Group of Experts should be established within IMO, which could summarize and distribute lessons learned from the analyses of false alerts. Membership of the Voluntary Group of Experts would be open to all interested parties and initially would be formed with the members of the former Correspondence Group on false alerts. The group could begin work analysing data on false alerts collected since 1991. It was envisaged that the group would be a panel of experts similar to the Joint ICAO-IMO Working Group and the International NAVTEX Co-ordinating Panel, where IMO is responsible for the Secretariat, supported by a panel of experts from the Member States. It was recognized that it would be important to take into account the expertise and experience gained over the years within COSPAS-SARSAT and Inmarsat Ltd, where a SMR programme had been also developed which contained elements of importance for a GMDSS-SMR. The Sub-Committee also agreed that, since several Administrations had been collecting information on false alerts, the Voluntary Group of Experts could begin its work at the eighth session of the COMSAR Sub-Committee.

A draft revised MSC circular on Guidelines for preparing plans for co-operation between SAR services and passenger ships was agreed for submission to MSC 77.

Guidance on responsibility and liability issues related to the use of the Emergency Medical Kits (EMK) and the evaluation of the use of the EMK in emergency incidents has been included in a draft MSC circular, which will be submitted to MSC 77 for approval. It was recognized that more experience had to be gained with EMK before being in a position to provide advice on monitoring evaluation and research in the use of EMK in emergency incidents. Member Governments should be invited to include medical experts in their delegations to COMSAR 8.

The Sub-Committee endorsed recommendations made by the Joint ICAO/IMO Working Group (JWG), at its ninth session and, in particular, approved the dissemination of COMSAR Circular 31 on Mass Rescue Operations, inviting MSC 77 to endorse the action taken.

The Sub-Committee supported the development of a draft GMDSS Coast Station Operator's Course (CSOC), as outlined by the United Kingdom, as a common training standard for submission to JWG 10 and COMSAR 8 for consideration and endorsement and subsequent validation by the STW Sub-Committee as an IMO model course.

Inmarsat-A phase out date confirmed

Inmarsat Ltd. had formerly indicated that 5-years' notice would be given for the withdrawal of Inmarsat-A services and has now informed the Organization that these services will be withdrawn on 31 December 2007. Inmarsat-A is the original analogue service provided via the Inmarsat satellites and was first introduced in 1982.

Although Inmarsat-A is approved for fitting in ships as part of their GMDSS equipment, the communication capabilities provided by Inmarsat-A are now provided more efficiently and effectively by other types of digital Inmarsat terminal, and the number of Inmarsat-A terminals that remain in use on board ships is declining rapidly.

The last type-approval by Inmarsat for a new model of maritime Inmarsat-A mobile earth station (MES) was granted in 1991. No new Inmarsat-A MES models have been type-approved since then.

The Sub-Committee agreed a draft MSC Circular urging Member Governments to bring this information to the attention of all concerned within the maritime industry including their administrations, shipowners and managers, search and rescue authorities and ship masters.

NAVTEX equipment performance standards

The Sub-Committee agreed a draft MSC resolution to adopt revised performance standards for NAVTEX equipment. In completing revisions of Performance Standards for NAVTEX Equipment, it was agreed that NAVTEX messages could be displayed on an integrated navigation system. The carriage of NAVTEX receivers on ships is required under SOLAS IV/7.1.4. Since NAVTEX messages include information necessary for the safe navigation of ships, displaying such messages on an integrated navigation display may be appropriate and useful, and may benefit the mariner by placing information necessary for the safe navigation of the ship in one place. COMSAR invited the MSC to request the NAV Sub-Committee to consider the requirement that integrated navigation systems be capable of displaying NAVTEX information. The NAV Sub-Committee may also consider that integrated navigation systems might be capable of displaying data received from SafetyNET receivers.