ABSTRACT: EDA is a tool for auditing vessel?s performance that helps installing strict safety navigation standards on ships. The practice of investigating every near-miss event is common in aviation, but unheard of in the maritime industry. At the same time, major accidents attributed to human errors are increasing, including collisions and groundings that cost lives, pollute the seas and lose property. The idea of EDA, short for E-navigation Data Audit, is simple: analyze the navigational data from VDR and/or ECDIS, find the events that should not have happened (?near misses?), and instruct your ships that it is not the standard you want on your vessels. EDA allows remote auditing on how the bridge team is performing and how the ship is handled, as required by ISM but seldom done. A pilot project for the EDA was carried out during 6 months. The first data showed 18 events of close proximity (?Near-collision?); 4 of them showed severe violation of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG, 1972). As expected, after sending the EDA first report to the ship, NO such events were found in the next 5 months of the pilot project.

KEYWORDS: Safety at Sea, Anti-Collision, Colregs, Ships Manoeuvering, Improving Navigation Standards, e-Navigation Data Audit (EDA), Totem Plus, Near-Collision

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