Arctic Maritime Safety Information (AMSI) System to Expand

Date

12 July 2007

For more information, please contact:
Maritime Safety Watch Desk
U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Website: http://www.nga.mil/maritime
Phone: 301-227-3147 or 1-800-362-6289

Applicability:
This announcement should be read by all researchers and PIs who perform
field research in the Arctic Ocean, Marine Superintendents of
institutions conducting research from ships in the area, and Masters of
Arctic Ocean research vessels.

Background:
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is the manager of
United States participation in the Worldwide Navigation Warning Service
(WWNWS), the system that receives information on maritime hazards placed
or discovered in the open ocean (beyond national territorial waters) and
then promulgates the location and appropriate amplifying information
about the structure, research sensor, or hazard to all ships and
submarines at sea in the affected area. The United States has been
providing maritime safety information in the temperate oceans since
1907. Numerous international maritime agreements, among them the Safety
of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Agreement and the International Rules of the
Nautical Road, mandate the reporting and distribution of maritime hazard
information. The responsibility to report any maritime hazard, observed
or created, is vested in the Master of the vessel involved. PI's and
Marine Superintendents, however, should be similarly sensitive to this
requirement.

Research in the Arctic Ocean continues to grow, stimulated by two
factors: (1) greater ability of vessels of all types to gain safe access
to the Arctic Ocean, and (2) the initiation of the International Polar
Year (IPY) during 2007-2009. This heightened research interest is
reflected in greater numbers of ocean research sensors, which are more
sophisticated, physically larger, and certainly more expensive.
Concurrently, the easier access to the Arctic has also allowed more
vessels to ply the ocean's waters. These factors, in turn, have created
a higher probability of an undesirable collision between a vessel (ship,
submarine) and a sensor (a mooring, buoy, AUV or ROV - all viewed by the
mariner as a "maritime hazard"). Such a collision not only results in
loss of the research sensor, loss of data, and a financial loss to the
PI, but also potential damage to the vessel.

In 2003 NGA recognized the emerging changes in the Arctic Ocean and
initiated the Arctic Maritime Safety Information (AMSI) system to
enforce a basic level of maritime safety in the Arctic, where, prior to
that time, no such system existed. The NGA website hosts the AMSI
system, which at present is not internationally approved, but fills this
safety need on an interim basis. The AMSI system not only accepts
reports of sensors and hazards from U.S. entities, but from all nations.

Current Action:
The international governing bodies for the WWNWS, the International
Hydrographic Organization (IHO), and the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) have recently drafted an amendment to the WWNWS to
formally expand the WWNWS to include the Arctic Ocean. The draft
amendment is currently undergoing review and approval by member nations.
The draft amendment includes five (5) new Navigation Areas (NAVAREAs) in
the Arctic Ocean that have been defined. These areas will be
administratively managed by Canada (2), Norway, and Russia (2). Full and
final approval is anticipated in 2009. In the interim the AMSI system
will be available to promulgate reported hazards.