Shared pilot passage plan and navigational safety during pilotage

Navigating in confined waters with a pilot aboard requires that the pilot’s intention and plan is understood by all present on the bridge. The present study investigates the effect of having a detailed route plan and monitoring it in the context of pilotage. The aim was to see how the presence of a shared pilot passage plan in the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) affects the identification and recovery from navigational errors made by a pilot. Twenty participants, 10 with a shared route plan and 10 without, participated as navigators in a simulator scenario involving pilotage in the Oslofjord. Participants were bachelor students in nautical science. The navigation scenarios involved the intentional error by the pilot just before a predefined way point. Three measurements of relevance to navigational safety were recorded: (1) the time it took the participant to express concern, (2) the time it took the participant to correct the error (‘time to recovery’), and (3) the number of groundings. The study revealed that time to express concern and time to recovery were significantly much shorter for the group with a shared pilot passage plan presented in ECDIS than for the group without such a plan. Providing a bridge team with a shared pilot passage plan in ECDIS during pilotage might improve the ability to identify and correct navigational errors.     

Oil spill risk analysis of routeing heavy ship traffic in Norwegian waters

Norwegian authorities have for a long time been concerned about the risk of oil spills outside the Norwegian coast. One of the key measures adopted has been to reduce the risk of ship accidents by imposing sailing routes for heavy ship traffic (over 5,000 gross tonnages) with high environmental risk potential farther away from part of the coast. This article is based upon two reports which conducted risk assessments of imposing such sailing routes outside the entire Norwegian coast. These routes were proposed by an expert group consisting of relevant stakeholders. Data of traffic pattern and number of sailing were collected for the year 2008 using the universal Automatic Identification System (AIS). The proposed route was compared with 2008 traffic pattern in regard to the accident frequencies and the expected oil spills per year. An accident and oil spilling simulation program called MARCS was used to simulate these results. After conducting a traffic forecast for the year 2025, the simulation was again run and the results compared with the year 2008. In total, the proposed route is expected to reduce oil spills by 590 t per year in 2008 and by 3670?t in 2025. The main reason for this substantial reduction is that the number of groundings is reduced because of the distance from the shore being increased. The reduction was particularly strong for tankers.