As Morski writes, officers from all captains’ offices within the framework of the Safe Sailing 2022 action (campaign) carried out 438 inspections, on the basis of which they found 172 violations of regulations and charged violators over 400,000 kuna in fines.
The Safe Sailing 2022 action involves the enhanced supervision of navigation safety, which was held on Friday, July the 22nd, from 10:00 to 18:00 in the areas covered by all Croatian port authorities. It was headed by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, monitored by the State Secretary for Maritime Affairs and EU Funds, Josip Bilaver, and the Director of the Administration for Safe Navigation, Captain Sinisa Orlic.
The goal of the action was primarily the education of all participants in Croatian maritime traffic, while the purpose of sanctioning violators was to prevent maritime accidents, and the main reason for holding a comprehensive coordinated action such as this one is certainly the heavily increased maritime traffic in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea during the height of the summer months.
State Secretary Josip Bilaver followed the course of action in the Zadar area of sailing safety supervision and expressed his satisfaction with what he saw and noted that approximately 160,000 vessels are currrently sailing in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea, while supervision is being carried out by 40 ships from eight port authorities.
”The surveillance activities during the Safe Sailing 2022 action were primarily aimed at controlling illegal sailing speeds and gliding in areas where that isn’t permitted, which accounts for over 60 percent of the total violations. Supervision will also be carried out over boat rentals, unscrupulous swimmers and divers, passenger boats being used for one-day trips and other participants in maritime transport. Finally, I’d like to point out that this is the first, but certainly not the last action set to take place this season. I’d like to ask all participants in maritime transport to respect the sea, and to take proper care of themselves and others,” said State Secretary Josip Bilaver.
The increased level of supervision carried out as part of the recent Safe Sailing 2022 action was dealt with by the officers of the port authorities in coordination with the Service for the Supervision and Management of Maritime Traffic (VTS), whose employees provided support with their own reports on the observed areas in which there was increased vessel traffic, the violations in navigation they’d observed, unidentified and identified maritime objects, and more, all with a special emphasis on the control of improper sailing speeds in unauthorised areas.
100 officers of the Department of Navigation Safety from the competent ministry participated in this action, and inspections were carried out with 23 vessels from the composition of the port authorities and associated branches. 438 such inspections were carried out, which found a total of 173 violations of the regulations set out in the country’s Maritime Code, that is, the rulebook (pravilnik) on the safety of maritime navigation.
Fines in the total amount of 406,000.00 kuna were imposed on participants in maritime transport who were found guilty of any violations.
Through preventive actions towards all participants in maritime traffic, the necessity of observing safety regulations during navigation has been pointed out. This central action is a demonstration of the operational readiness and efficiency of the competent services of the ministry, that is, of the navigation safety system, and the implementation of enhanced navigation safety monitoring actions will continue in the area of competence of all eight port authorities during this period of increased maritime traffic.
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