409

1 THEPROBLEM

Marine catastrophes happen all the time. EMSA

(EuropeanMaritimeSafety Agency) reported that in

2014 there were 331 cases of Groundings or

Stranding, 378 cases of Contacts and 293 cases of

Collisions.Morethan250personslosttheirlivesand

2000 were injured in those incidents, apart from the

financial loss and pollut

ion 1. The numbers

worldwide are definitely higher as EMSA reports

only on incidents reported by EU member states.

Most important, 67% of the reported incidents were

relatedtoHumanErroneousActions.

The reasons why so many incidents happen

becauseofHumanErroneousActionsisattributedby

manytodeterioratingstandardsofmarinersandthe

tendency to employ cheap crews. Complaints about

deterioratinglevelofseafarersareverycommon,and

can be heard of at any marine conference or

gathering. Possiblyitis true, but we do not see that

only so‐called “cheap crews” are having more than

the average number of accidents. Others take a

somewhat different approach and blame the

“advanced technology as well as the of‐quoted

humanelement

2

.“andconsequentlyseethesolution

(or part of it) by providing the mariners with

standardized modes of operation – the so called S‐

MODE(inotherwords,theclaimis“marinersarenot

so smart, give them simple systems”) .Several high

profile incidents, for example the groundings of the

CostaConcordiaandtheRena,orthecollisionofthe

BalticAce,donotagreewithbothassumptions(two

of the three were manned by well‐trained European

officers).Webelievethatthereasonofthoseaccidents

canbeattributedtocockinessandover‐confidenceof

EDA: New System for Improving Navigation Standards

(Totem Plus)

A.Rahav

TotemPlus,RamatHasharon,Israel

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tha

t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audit

ing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 proximit

y (“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.

http://www.transnav.eu

the International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 11

Number 3

September 2017

DOI:10.12716/1001.11.03.02

410

thebridgeteam,andevenmoresotolackofproper

supervision,auditingandfeedback.Norealactionis

taken to check the current navigation performance

onboard in order to assimilate navigation safety

standards.Itshouldbeemphasizedthatthenumbers

of accidents above are those of real and reported

accidents, while at sea there are many more “Close

call”incidents.Thoseincidentsarenotreported, not

analyzed and never learned from. A system of

feedbacktothe navigatorsisbadlyneeded,onethat

will make every “close call” incident known,

accountableandlearnedfrom.

2 NEARMISSES

In the aviation industry, near misses are taken very

seriouslyandadministrationsinvestigatesuchevents

indepth.Itispossiblyeasierfortheaviationindustry

becausemostoftheairtrafficissupervisedbytraffic

control centers. Ships, on the other hand, still enjoy



the freedom of the seas and near misses are not

recordedorinvestigated(mostofthem).Thisfactis

indeed a violation of the ISM code, which requires

auditingofshipperformanceandrecordingsofnear

misses. Class NK Safety Management System, for

example,requires3“ReportingofHazardousOccurrence



(Nearmiss)andMeasurestoaddressthem‐Arehazardous

occurrences (Near miss) reported to the company ? Are

these reports investigated and analyzed by the company?

Have these matters, together with preventive measures, 

been brought to the attention of other ships concerned?

“.Unfortunately,inmostcasesthisrequirementisnot

followed,andendswithpapershufflingforthesake

ofbureaucracy,possiblybecauseuptonowtherewas

no adequate tool to find such events. We cannot

expect the mariners to report it voluntarily, as it is

againsthumannatureforonetoincriminatehimself,

and even honest mariners that experienced

 a near

missmaynotalwaysadmitthatitwasindeedanear

miss.Thedefinitionofwhatisindeeda“nearmiss”

may vary according to several technical parameters

such as ship’s type, maneuverability, geographic

location etc., but also by the standards of the

investigator. One cable distance from

a ship

overtaken may look safe to one mariner, but not

prudent to another. We have different expectations

(andtolerance) from an experienced pilotentering a

busyharborthanfromajuniorofficerinopenwaters.

Somecompanieshavestandardsofsafedistanceand

safe clearance below the keel, but those

 are many

times overlooked. We will see below how this

obstaclecanbedealtwith.

3 DATASOURCE

Modern bridge systems are equipped with various

recording capabilities, such as a dedicated Voyage

Data Recorder (VDR) which should record all

navigationaldata for 30days 4, and alsowith other

systems

recordingtheirdatainternallysuchasECDIS

(and possibly other systems). Analysis of recorded

historyfornearmissesispossibletodayand,aswill

beshownfurther,isalreadyavailablebyEDA.

4 EDA(E‐NAVIGATIONDATAAUDIT)–

INTRODUCTION

EDA is a software program designed to analyze

historicaldata recorded

byECDIS and VDR, to find

eventsof“nearmiss”asdefinedby theuser,andto

allow analysis of navigational data. The program is

currentlyworkingonTotemECDISandTotemVDR,

andanalysiscanbedonebyTotemPlusasaservice

toownersordirectlybythe

owners.TheaimofEDA

isnottofindandpunishculprits,buttopromulgate

thecompanydesiretokeepsafenavigationstandards.

Consequently,the“nearmisses”shouldbebroughtto

management attention in order to assist in

establishing a dialog with the ships resulting in

superiornavigationsafetystandardsacross

thefleet.

Itshouldbenoted,however,thatthesocalled“near

misses” found are analyzed based on data recorded

by ECDIS and/or VDR alone, and the navigators or

masters may explain the situation by giving more

information such as visibility or sea state or special

circumstances that may shed

different light on the

actionstakenonboardandfurtherenhancethesafety

dialog.

5 USINGTHEPROGRAMANDEVENT

DEFINITION

Theprogramisfriendly and its use isintuitive.The

user can definethe criteria that he wants to findby

using recorded information such as speed, depth,

distance from other

 ships etc.(distance can be

calculatedfromeitherAISorARPA).“Nearcollision”,

for example, can be defined as an event where

another ship passed at a distance smaller than 0.4

miles,whilesteamingatspeedgreaterthan15knots

andatadepthgreaterthan30meters(seepicture1).

Speed

andDepthvaluesarechosenasabovetolimit

thefindingstoopenseaandtofilteroutentrytoports

etc. Other events (such as near grounding) can be

similarlydeclared.Oncethecriteriaforthesearchare

definedtheprogramwillsearchallavailabledatafiles

tofinda

possiblematch.Thecriteriacanalsobegiven

atitleandbesavedforfutureuse.



Figure1.SearchforNearCollision

In the example in figure 1, showing a search for

“NearCollision”,twoeventsmatchingtherequested

searchparameters (as defined above) were detected.

Replay of the exact data showed that one event is

justified,whiletheothereventfromthetwoshowed

clearly that the ship was violating the International



RegulationsforPreventingCollisionsatSea.

411

6 PILOTPROJECT

EDA was used on a large and fast car carrier, as a

pilot project from March 2016.The duration of the

pilotwas6monthsandtheresultsweresoimpressive

thatthe owners decided to use EDA acrossthe fleet

on all 60 car carriers. During the

 first month of the

case study (March 2016) ,18 incidents of close

proximity were discovered as shown in Figure 2.

Analysisoftheseevents showed 4 events where the

vesselclearlyviolatedtheCOLREG,1972:

1 NotgivingwaytoaFishingvesselcrossingfrom

Starboard,forcing the other vessel

toaltercourse

and speed. Close proximity detected was 0.36

miles.

2 Mixedaction (first turn tostarboard then turn to

port)resultingincloseproximity(0.36miles)toan

ARPAtarget.

3 MixedactiononanARPAtargetresultinginclose

proximity (0.23 miles). Target had to change

course‐

possibly to avoid the vessel under

investigation from passing close on the target’s

stern.

4 Not giving way while overtaking in a separation

zone,forcingtheothervesseltoincreasespeedto

19knotsinordertopassclear.Minimumdistance

recordedwas0.08miles.



Figure2.FulllistofcloseproximityduringMarch2016

It should be noted thatthe incidents found were

analyzedbasedondatarecordedbyECDISandVDR,

without any input from the navigators or master or

anyconcreteinformationonvisibilityorseastatethat

maysheddifferentlightontheactionstakenonboard.

7 THEEDAEFFECT

Theresults

oftheanalysisweresenttoownerswhich

inturnpromulgatedthembacktotheship.Theeffect

was striking. During the next 5 months (April to

August 2016), the data analyzed showed NO

BREACH of the Collision Regulations (COLREG,

1972). It shows clearly that the level of navigation

performance

onboard can be raised with relatively

littleeffort,usingthe“BigBrotherWatching”ability

ofEDA.Theresultsconvincedtheownerstousethe

EDAacrossthefleet.EDAiscurrentlyimplemented

ontwolargefleetsoftankersandcarcarriers.

8 OTHEREVENTS&ANALYSIS

EDAcanlookforall

 kinds of events, not only close

proximity.Asimilarsearchfor“NearGrounding”is

given in Fig.3, showing a ship sailing in 15 Knots

(yellowline)oververyshallowwatersoflessthan2

metersbelowthekeel(magentaline)–somethingto

be frowned at. The effect of “squatting”

due to

shallow water can be seen clearly by the speed

reductionduetothatsquat.Itshouldbenotedthat2

meters clearance below the keel is measured at the

depth sounder sensor and no allowance for trim is

taken,hencetheclearancecanbemuchsmaller.



Figure3. Ship sailing in 15 Knots (yellow line) over very

shallowwaters.

EDA has also the capability to analyze the data

from navigation sensors, to show each parameter

graphically and to compute the Standard Deviation

(SD) for any selected period. Comparison of SD on

similar vessels (or on same vessel in different

conditions) can be illuminating, for example the

responseoftheautopilotandthedifferencebetween

headingandCOG.InFigure4weseethecomparison

betweenHeadingandCOGfor several days, and in

figure5weseethecalculated SDforthisperiod for

severalkeyparameters.



Figure4. comparison between Heading and COG over 6

days.



Figure5.StandardDeviationofkeyparameters.

412

TheEfficiencyAnalysisaboveisseparatefromthe

NearMissanalysisandshouldbevieweddifferently.

It will take more time to learn how this Efficiency

Analysisisindeedimportantandhowitcanhelpto

understand the navigation equipment performance.

Weexpectthatmorereportsonmoreshipswillgive

ustheanswertothatortothedirectioninwhichthe

analysis should pursue and may require further

research. It is not the main goal of EDA and, until

shown otherwise, can be taken as an added value

featuretothemaintaskoffindingNearMisses.

9 SUMMARY

EDAisanewconceptinthemarineindustry,andin

relativelyshorttimehasdemonstrateditspotentialto

assimilatesafe navigationalstandardsonboardships

analyzed.The ability of owners and/or management

to send back to the ship a list

 of Near Misses and

possible unsafe conduct and ask for a proper

feedback, is a very powerful tool that serves as a

detriment to reckless actions by navigators. EDA

showeditsvalueindetectingunsafecloseencounters

involvingviolationofCOLREG,1972aswellasevents

ofunsafesailingover

shallowwaters.EDAshouldbe

considered as an integral part of the continuous

training onboard ships, and can be used by owners

wishing to fulfill the ISM requirements for proper

audit.ItisuptothemaritimecommunityandIMOto

make systems like EDA part of the required safety

audits.



REFERENCES

[1]https://www.cesam.org/documents/Review_Marine_Cas

ualties_and_Incidents_2015.pdf

[2]http://www.lodstilsyn.dk/files/links/rapporter/develoing

_user_needs_for_smode_e_jacobson_and_m_lutzhoft_20

08.pdf

[3]NK Safety Management System, https://www.classnk.

or.jp/hp/pdf/activities/statutory/ism/SELF‐CHK‐

Company‐e.pdf

[4]MSC 333(90), http://www.imo.org/en/

KnowledgeCentre/indexofimoresolutions/documents/m

sc%20‐%20maritime%20safety/333(90).pdf

