3
T he Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait comprise a complex net- work of islands and coral reefs extending over three thousand kilometres along the Queensland coast. The region’s cultural and natural heritage is recognised internationally: aThe Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait are declared Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSA) by the IMO a The Great Barrier Reef is listed as a World Heritage Area. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is a multi-use area, supporting tourism, re- search, recreational and commercial fishing and shipping activities. There are eleven ports operating adjacent to the Great Bar- rier Reef, accounting for approximately $17 billion of Australia’s annual export trade. The export of bulk cargoes and the impor- ting of essential fuel and manufacturing re- sources are crucial to Australia’s economy. Great Barrier Reef tourism contributes some $5 billion per year to the Australian economy. With increasing shipping activity in the re- gion the Australian Government introdu- ced the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Vessel Traffic Service (REEFVTS) in 2004 as a mechanism to improve the safety and efficiency of vessel movements and to help protect the marine environment. On 3 April 2010, the bulk carrier Shen Neng 1 ran aground on Douglas Shoal, ap- proximately 70 nm south of the then sou- thern REEFVTS boundary and hence outside the REEFVTS area. The grounding breached the ship's double-bottom fuel Evaluating the role of VTS in reducing risk An Australian perspective By Neil Trainor, Specialist, Vessel Traffic Services Australian Maritime Safety Authority and Kerrie Abercrombie, REEFVTS Project Officer Australian Maritime Safety Authority Cairns Coral Sea QUEENSLAND Lucinda Townsville Mackay Hay Point Gladstone Bundaberg Fraser Island Cape Flattery Grafton Passage Palm Passage Torres Strait Weipa Mourilyan Abbot Point Port Alma Hydrographers Passage Great Barrier Reef PAPUA NEW GUINEA REEFVTS Area ¯ Vessel Traffic Service (REEFVTS) Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait S12-75 50 0 50 100 150 nautical miles 100 0 100 200 300 kilometres Bulletin de l’AISM 2012/3 l IALA Bulletin 2012/3 34 members

Evaluating the role of VTS in reducing risk - amsa.gov.au · Evaluating the role of VTS in reducing risk An Australian perspective By Neil Trainor, Specialist, Vessel Traffic Services

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

The Great Barrier Reef and TorresStrait comprise a complex net-work of islands and coral reefsextending over three thousand

kilometres along the Queensland coast.The region’s cultural and natural heritage isrecognised internationally:

aThe Great Barrier Reef and Torres Straitare declared Particularly Sensitive SeaAreas (PSSA) by the IMO a The Great Barrier Reef is listed as aWorld Heritage Area.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is amulti-use area, supporting tourism, re-search, recreational and commercial fishingand shipping activities. There are elevenports operating adjacent to the Great Bar-rier Reef, accounting for approximately $17billion of Australia’s annual export trade.The export of bulk cargoes and the impor-ting of essential fuel and manufacturing re-sources are crucial to Australia’s economy.Great Barrier Reef tourism contributessome $5 billion per year to the Australianeconomy.

With increasing shipping activity in the re-gion the Australian Government introdu-ced the Great Barrier Reef and TorresStrait Vessel Traffic Service (REEFVTS) in2004 as a mechanism to improve the safetyand efficiency of vessel movements and tohelp protect the marine environment.

On 3 April 2010, the bulk carrier ShenNeng 1 ran aground on Douglas Shoal, ap-proximately 70 nm south of the then sou-thern REEFVTS boundary and henceoutside the REEFVTS area. The groundingbreached the ship's double-bottom fuel

Evaluating the role of VTS in reducing riskAn Australian perspective

By Neil Trainor, Specialist, Vessel Traffic ServicesAustralian Maritime Safety Authority

and Kerrie Abercrombie, REEFVTS Project OfficerAustralian Maritime Safety Authority

Cairns

CoralSea

QUEENSLAND

Lucinda

Townsville

MackayHay Point

Gladstone

Bundaberg FraserIsland

Cape Flattery

Grafton Passage

Palm Passage

Torres Strait

Weipa

Mourilyan

Abbot Point

Port Alma

Hydrographers Passage

Great Barrier Reef

PAPUANEW GUINEA

REEFVTSArea

¯

Vessel Traffic Service(REEFVTS)

Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait

S12-75

50 0 50 100 150nautical miles

100 0 100 200 300kilometres

Bulletin de l’AISM 2012/3 l IALA Bulletin 2012/334

members

tanks, resulting in the release of some bun-ker oil. The impact of the vessel also cau-sed physical damage to Douglas Shoal,which may take many years to recover.

Following this grounding, and in light of pro-jected further increases in shipping activityand planned port expansions, the AustralianMaritime Safety Authority (AMSA) reasses-sed the range of complementary measuresimplemented over many years to mitigaterisks associated with shipping activity, whichincluded:

a Declaration of the region as a Particu-larly Sensitive Sea Area in 1990 by the IMOallowing Australia to introduce associatedprotective measures.

a Establishment of a compulsory coastalpilotage regime in 1991 for ships transitingthe more navigationally complex shippingroutes with the pilot providing detailedlocal knowledge to assist safe passage.

a Establishment of an IMO-adopted shipreporting system in 1997 whereby shipsare required to report their position on aregular basis.

a Introduction of REEFVTS in 2004 allo-wing near real-time monitoring of ship traf-fic to provide information to a ship’s masteron potential traffic conflicts and other na-vigational information. This area extendedto latitude 22 degrees south (just south ofMackay) leaving out the far southern partof the Great Barrier Reef Marine Parkwhich is typically more open and easier tonavigate.

a In 2004 a system of use zoning was in-troduced by the Great Barrier Reef MarinePark Authority which included the alloca-tion of designated shipping areas.

a Implementation of an emergency mana-gement towage system and associated res-ponse arrangements in 2006 whichincluded the provision of a dedicated emer-gency towage vessel.

aA concentration of Australia’s extensiveaids-to-navigation network including lights,buoys and a differential satellite system(DGPS).

The assessment identified that REEFVTShad significantly contributed to the re-duction in groundings since it was intro-duced in 2004 and the AMSA reportentitled „Improving Safe Navigation in theGreat Barrier Reef, April 2010‰ recommen-ded REEFVTS be extended to the sou-thern boundary of the PSSA (that is from22° south to 24°30� south) as VTS provi-ded a cost effective mechanism and had

a proven track record of mitigating therisk of groundings.

Following a submission to the IMO, thesouthern boundary of the Great BarrierReef and Torres Strait Ship Reporting Sys-tem was extended to align with that of thePSSA on 1 July 2011. This extension inclu-ded the delivery of REEFVTS services overwhat amounts to an additional 95,000square kilometres of water.

Since the introduction of REEFVTS in 2004the average number of groundings in theGreat Barrier Reef and Torres Strait peryear has declined from 1.42 per 10,000transits to 0.15 per 10,000 transits, a re-duction of 89 per cent.

This reduction in groundings is attributedto REEFVTS providing timely and accurateinformation to assist on-board decision

making by the bridge team. A suite of de-cision-support tools is used to monitor thetransit of individual ships and escalate po-tentially developing situations to the atten-tion of the duty Vessel Traffic ServiceOperator (VTSO) to assist in the determi-nation of where interaction from the shoremay assist on-board decision-making. Thisincorporates a system of electronic corri-dors, shallow water areas and critical way-points to highlight situations where a shipdoes not alter course at a critical waypoint,deviates from a recommended route ormay be in danger of running aground.

In most cases these tools provide forprompt interaction with the bridge teamand help prevent developing situationsfrom becoming critical.

The importance of this interaction is thatit enables the duty VTSO to confirm thevessel’s intentions and, in situations where

the vessel may be standing into danger, pro-vide navigational assistance to mitigate therisk of grounding.

The grounding in 2009 was a piloted vessel,the Atlantic Blue, at Kirkcaldie Reef in theTorres Strait. An investigation by the Aus-tralian Transport Safety Bureau found thatthe ship grounded because its progress andposition were not effectively monitored bythe bridge team and inadequate action wastaken to bring it back on track. Bridge re-sources were not managed effectively, off-track limits were not defined and thebridge team did not have a shared mentalmodel of the passage. Safety actions to ad-dress all the issues have subsequently beentaken by the relevant parties.

The report identified safety issues in rela-tion to the ship's passage planning proce-dures, the coastal pilotage check pilot

regime and the coastal vessel traffic ser-vice's monitoring system.

With regards to REEFVTS, the reportconcluded that although the duty VTSOhad taken immediate action in response tothe shallow water alarm generated by thedecision support system in accordancewith REEFVTS procedures, the monitoringsystem did not provide adequate warningof Atlantic Blue entering shallow water be-cause the boundary of the defined shallowwater alert area was too close to dangersoff Kirkcaldie Reef.

At the time of the grounding a review ofthe electronic corridors and shallow waterareas in the Torres Strait was underway tobring them into line with enhancementspreviously introduced to the Great BarrierReef region as part of operating in a conti-nuous improvement environment. This wasnoted in the investigation and the report

Bulletin de l’AISM 2012/3 l IALA Bulletin 2012/3 35

members

identified the contribution of these toolsto better utilise available resources to en-hance traffic monitoring and complementa ship’s bridge resources - potentially, thestate of the bridge could have improvedand changed the sequence of events suffi-ciently to prevent the grounding.

The enhanced use of electronic corridorsand shallow water areas was extended tothe Torres Strait a month after the 2009grounding.

Recent evaluations have highlighted thevalue of assessing and monitoring the ove-rall performance of VTS. REEFVTS hasadopted an ongoing performance monito-ring regime to help ensure continuous im-provement in a changing environment. REEFVTS operates under an ISO 9001 cer-tified Quality Management System and itsVTSOs are trained by an accredited trai-ning institute in accordance with IALA Re-commendation V-103 and Model Course

V-103/1, VTS Operator Training, Recom-mendation V-103 and Model Course V-103/2, and VTS Supervisor Training andGuideline 1014 – Accreditation of VTS Trai-ning Courses. n

The IALA VTS Committee in its 2010/14Work Programme has commenced the deve-lopment of a Guideline on assessing and au-diting the overall performance of VTS Centreswith respect to their effectiveness in mitiga-ting risk.This Guideline aims to establish a frameworkfor verifying objective evidence of VTS pro-cesses, to assess how successfully VTS pro-cesses have been implemented, for judgingthe effectiveness of achieving any defined tar-get levels and to provide evidence concerningreduction and elimination of problem areas.Should anyone have similar experiences onhow to assess the performance of VTS withrespect to their effectiveness for mitigatingrisk, please contact: [email protected]

members

Evaluación del rol de VTS en la reducción de riesgos – Una perspectiva australiana

El artículo está escrito por Neil Trainor y Kerrie Abercrombie de la Autoridad de SeguridadMarítima Australiana (AMSA). Aquí hay un esbozo de la Gran Barrera de Coral (GBR) y delEstrecho de Torres que comprende una compleja red de islas y arrecifes de coral que se extiendepor más de 3.000 km. Ambas características están declaradas Áreas Marítimas ParticularmenteSensibles (PSSA) por la OMI y la GBR está listada como un Área del Patrimonio de la Huma-nidad. La GBR es un área multiuso que sostiene el turismo, la investigación, la pesca recreativay comercial y las actividades de navegación y aquí hay once puertos que manejan 17 milmillones de dólares australianos en exportaciones. El turismo aporta unos 5 mil millones dedólares australianos anualmente. Evaluaciones recientes han destacado la importancia de eva-luar y controlar el rendimiento total de VTS. REEFVTS ha adoptado un régimen en curso demonitoreo del rendimiento para ayudar a asegurar la mejora continua. El Comité de VTS deIALA ha comenzado la elaboración en borrador de una Directriz sobre la evaluación y auditoriadel rendimiento total de los Centros de VTS con respecto a su eficacia en la mitigación de ries-gos. Esta Directriz establecerá un marco para verificar las pruebas objetivas de los procesos,implementación y eficacia de VTS. Se invita a los lectores que tengan experiencias de cómoevaluar el rendimiento de VTS con respecto a su eficacia para la mitigación de riesgos a ponerseen contacto con: [email protected] u

Evaluation du rôle des STM dans la ré-duction du risque - Une perspectiveaustralienne

L’article a été rédigé par Neil Trainor etKerrie Abercrombie de l’Autorité de Sé-curité Maritime Australienne (AMSA).Voici un plan de la Grande barrière decorail (GBR) et le Détroit de Torrescomprenant un réseau complexe d'îleset des récifs de corail s'étendant sur 3000 km. Ces deux ensembles ont été dé-clarés zones particulièrement sensiblesde la mer (PSSA) par l'OMI et la Grandebarrière de corail est inscrite au patri-moine mondial. Elle est une zone demulti-utilisation concernée par le tou-risme, la recherche, la pêche de loisirset commerciale et des activités de navi-gation, regroupant onze ports traitantdes exportations pour un total de 17milliards de dollars australiens (A$). Letourisme contribue annuellement àhauteur d’environ 5 milliards A$. Desévaluations récentes ont mis en évi-dence l’intérêt de l'évaluation et ducontrôle de la performance globale desSTM. Le STM « REEFVTS » a adopté unsuivi de la performance en continupour aider à assurer une améliorationcontinue. La commission VTS del’AISM a commencé l'élaboration d'unguide sur l'évaluation et l'audit de laperformance globale des centres deSTM en ce qui concerne leur efficacitédans l'atténuation du risque. Ce guideétablira un cadre permettant de vérifierla preuve objective du traitement, de lamise en œuvre et de l'efficacité des cen-tres STM. Les lecteurs qui ont l’expé-rience de la façon d'évaluer laperformance de STM en ce qui concerneleur efficacité pour atténuer le risquesont invités à prendre contact : [email protected] u

36 Bulletin de l’AISM 2012/3 l IALA Bulletin 2012/3