Improved maritime safety in the Sea of Åland – a new routeing system and new charts
The new routeing system in the Sea of Åland will be introduced on 1 January 2010. The system comprises two-way routes with traffic lanes for traffic moving in opposite directions (traffic separation schemes, TSS), new precautionary areas and a separate DW Route for vessels with deep draught.
The surveillance of the southern part of the routeing system is supervised by Finland i.e. the new Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency that will start its operations at the turn of the year. The surveillance work is handled by the traffic information centre Archipelago VTS in Pärnäs. The surveillance is based on the vessels’ AIS equipment that broadcasts a signal at regular intervals, whereby the centre forms an image of the traffic situation in the area based on the information received. Violations of sea route regulations are noted. VHF channel 16 is used to contact vessels. The working channel in the area is VHF channel 9. When transgressions occur they are reported to the vessel’s flag state.
There are both printed and electronic charts available of the Sea of Åland area. Owing to the traffic separation scheme more charts, new editions and updates of existing chart products will be published. A new chart, chart 935, scale 1:100 000 is also published. Printed Finnish charts and new editions of electronic charts and ENC Cells were published in November.
Old chart editions should be used in navigation till the end of 2009. The new charts enter into force as the new routeing system is introduced as of 1 January 2010. Then the old charts must be discarded.
The need for a routeing system to improve marine safety in the Sea of Åland was evaluated already in the 1980s. As the traffic volumes at sea have increased during the last decades so have the incidents. So far they have mostly been collisions with navigation marks, but the risk of collisions and grounding kept escalating.
In 2008 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) accepted the proposal by Finland and Sweden to establish a new routeing system south of Åland.
