International Journal
on Marine Navigation
and Safety of Sea Transportation
Volume 2
Number 2
June 2008
131
Safety of Vessels’ Traffic, Bound for Polish
Ports
J. Hajduk & J. Montewka
Maritime University of Szczecin, Poland
ABSTRACT: Vessels’ traffic in the area of Southern Baltic has not been organized yet. Therefore a risk of
potential grounding or collisions is imminent. Organization the traffic by means of passive methods like
determination the ships’ routes or traffic separation schemes is one of the better measures to improve
navigation safety. Although such activities should take into account interests of coastal countries. The whole
area should be considered, and the needs arising from traffic at present and in the future should be met. Due to
complexity of above problem, solutions that are fragmentary may lead to deterioration of existing situation
and cause new threats for all Baltic countries.
1 INTRODUCTION
Vessels’ traffic rules are specified and well known.
During last decades the number of ships, their size
and quantity of hauled goods significantly grew. At
present, the global tendency is to increase the
dimensions of vessels. In the light of navigation
safety, those global changes force incorporation of
new patterns of vessels’ traffic regulation. The aim
of above is to prevent from navigational accidents
like collisions and grounding. Vessels are becoming
deeper and deeper, but in many cases the natural
depth of waterways are to shallow to accommodate
them. At the entrance to Baltic Sea, south of Gedser
Point, due to shallows, maximum vessels’ draft is set
to 15 meters. Although the draft is limited, those
carriers with hazardous goods on board are huge
enough to be treated as a potential source of
ecological disaster for Baltic Sea, which is relatively
small and closed sea. The quantity of cargo that is
being carried over Baltic Sea nowadays, and plans
for future transit of crude oil and LNG, force to
establish new regulations that ensure acceptable
level of navigation safety. Taking into consideration
vessels’ traffic towards and from Polish harbors, one
may not forget about ships in transit, fisheries
activities and recreational activities. At present the
term “freedom of movement”, which means that
navigator may choose the route according to his
subjective preferences, seems to get retired. The
traffic separation schemes, recommended routes or
vessels’ surveillance system force the navigators to
follow the specified routes. At the moment, not all
the traffic across Baltic Sea is organized. While there
is an interlude between era of free movement and
mandatory routes, there comes questions about
present level of safety. The questions concern mostly
areas where organized traffic meet freedom traffic.
Above problems concern vessels bound for and from
ports on Polish coast. The more serious is it the more
LNG and gas carriers are planned to put into service
to and from Polish and Russian ports. Partly
organization of traffic in the area of Western Baltic,
by establishing the traffic separation schemes in
Bornholmsgat, seems to decrease the level of
navigation safety of vessels bound for and from
Polish ports. The number of dangerous rendezvous
situations for those vessels raised up.
132
2 VESSELS’ TRAFFIC PATTERNS
2.1 Vessel traffic pattern at present
New regulations concerning vessel traffic across
Baltic Sea, were adopted by International Maritime
Organization, and came into force at 01
st
July 2006
[2]. The aforementioned resolution established new
traffic separation schemes (TSS) in Bornholmsgat,
north of Ruegen and new inshore traffic zone off
German coast, south of Gedser Point (Fig. 1).
The main argument for adopting such vessel
traffic organization on area in question, was collision
between m/s Gdynia and m/s Fu Shan Hai, which
took place at 31
st
May 2003 [7]. However,
implementation of TSS Bornholmsgat did not solve
problem of similar dangerous rendezvous situations.
Vessel m/s Gdynia was heading course 280 bound
from port of Gdynia, while m/s Fu Shan Hai was
heading course 280, bound from port of Ventspils.
Courses of both vessels and position of collision is
shown on Fig. 2.
Fig. 1. Present vessel traffic systems layout on Western
Baltic [2]
Fig. 2. Position of collision m/s Gdynia and m/s Fu Shan Hai
At present, after TSS Bornholmsgat was adopted,
both vessels on convergent courses would be forced
to head more to north, what could cause additional
dangerous rendezvous situation, if they crossed
south-west leg of TSS. Assuming that such a
meeting scenario would go down with part of huge
crude oil tanker or gas carrier, every meeting
situation cause threat of collision and ecological
disaster over whole area.
2.2 Vessel traffic pattern – plans
On the fifty second session of Sub-Committee of
Safety of Navigation, Poland submitted the
document concerning planned new routing measures
in the southern part of the Baltic Sea [8]. The
purpose of ships routing is to improve the safety of
navigation in converging areas and in areas where
the density of traffic is great or where freedom of
movement of shipping is inhibited by restricted sea-
room, the existence of obstructions to navigation,
limited depths or unfavorable meteorological
conditions. The new routing measures under
consideration shall be seen as protective measures
which help to minimize the risk of groundings,
collisions and finally of environmental pollution of
the southern part of the Baltic Sea [8]. The
preliminary framework of the proposed routing
measures includes:
− a new traffic separation scheme between the
Słupsk Bank and Polish coastline,
− a new area to be avoided on Słupsk Bank,
− a new recommended route D in Polish EEZ and the
existing traffic separation schemes in the Gulf of
Gdańsk.
Presented document poorly refer to routing
measures in area south of Bornholm, in Pomeranian
Gulf or on approaching to ports of Świnoujście and
Szczecin. The proposed routing measures in area of
Słupsk Bank should be acknowledged as favorable.
Słupsk Bank is an off coast area, where vessels’
freedom of movement is heavily restricted, therefore
proposed traffic separation schemes would
significantly increase level of safety of navigation.
Although, dimension of maximum allowed vessel,
should be restricted with vessel’s draft, which should
not exceed 8-8,5 meters. Vessels which do not
comply with that restriction should pass north of
Słupsk Bank.
133
Fig. 3. New routing measures on southern Baltic Sea, submitted
by Poland [8]
Howsoever, the Route D, which has been being
build for several years, may not be configured good
enough with introduced TSS Bornholmsgat. Such
composition of Route D with TSS Bornholmsgat
may cause a lot of complications and many
dangerous rendezvous situations, especially for deep
draft vessels.
Fig. 4. Composition of planned Route D and existing TSS
Bornholmsgat
3 SUGGESTIONS
It is justified to foresee the increase of traffic
intensity across southern Baltic Sea, especially LNG
carriers, tankers and container vessels transiting
along Polish coast and bound for Polish harbors.
Therefore a complex regulation of vessels traffic all
over the Baltic Sea should be taken into
consideration. Existing and planned ships’ routes
should be well communicated wit traffic separation
schemes, to avoid situation where establishing one
element (route, TSS) would worsen the situation in
the whole area.
In a close future, a freedom of movement for
ships navigating across the Baltic Sea will be highly
restricted. Vessels will follow the determined routes
and separation schemes, small fishing boats and
leisure boast as well as coastal vessels will use
inshore traffic zones. Vessels which call small
harbors along coast, will navigate within inshore
traffic zones, under permanent shore based
surveillance. It may look like a faraway future
vision, but it is a matter of time and there is no way
back. Therefore it is a great challenge for coastal
countries to work out the regulations, based on
compromise and complex analysis, that ensure
proper level of navigation safety taking into
consideration permanent grow of dangerous goods
shipping. It is within Polish interests to organize
vessels’ traffic south of Bornholm, and ensure safety
navigation for vessels bounding for and from Polish
harbors. To accomplish that task a high level of
international activity is required. While the
predominant winds over Baltic Sea are northerly,
every disaster on the Baltic Sea will affect Polish
coast, no matters what is the distance from the shore.
Fig. 5 shows a preliminary conception of organization
vessels’ traffic across southern Baltic Sea, it shall
consist of:
Fig. 5. A suggestion for organization vessels’ traffic across southern Baltic Sea
134
− a new traffic separation scheme between the
Słupsk Bank and Polish coastline,
− a new route north of Słupsk Bank, with
opportunity to establish new TSS north of Słupsk
Bank,
− a new traffic separation scheme between Odra
Bank and Orla Bank,
− a new area to be avoided on Słupska Bank,
− a new recommended route D in Polish EEZ and
the existing traffic separation schemes in the Gulf
of Gdańsk, properly communicated with existing
and planned TSS,
− a alternative recommended route D, which would
proceed more to north that vessels bound from
ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia would easier pull out
to Bornholmsgat TSS.
Fig. 6 shows a suggestion for organization
vessels’ traffic bound for and from ports of
Świnoujście and Szczecin. The aim is to build two
routes for vessels with draft up to 13,5 meters. Those
routes must be communicated with existing TSS
north of Arkona and proposed TSS between Odra
Bank and Orla Bank. The layout of the routes must
also ensure vessels safety pull out between Arkona
and Gedser.
Fig. 6. A suggestion for organization vessels’ traffic bound for
and from ports of Świnoujście and Szczecin
4 CONCLUSIONS
Organization of vessels traffic is on a significant
importance for navigation safety. Every activities
concerning traffic organization must be correlated
and agreed between all interested parts. The partly
solutions, concerning only selected area, may
paradoxically deteriorate the situation and increase
risk of accidents. Organization vessels’ traffic across
southern Baltic Sea, should include:
− a new traffic separation scheme, south of Born-
holm, between Odra Bank and Orla Bank,
− a new traffic separation scheme between the
Słupsk Bank and Polish coastline, with restriction
for deep draft vessels,
− a new recommended route D in Polish EEZ and
the existing traffic separation schemes in the Gulf
of Gdańsk, properly communicated with existing
and planned TSS,
− new routes for vessels bound for and from
Świnoujście and Szczecin properly communicated
with existing and proposed TSS. The layout of
the routes must also ensure vessels safety pull out
between Arkona and Gedser.
Moving away the vessels routes from the coast, is
not a proper solution, especially in case of winds
from the sea. Therefore more important is the
complex analysis which take into consideration
specification of the whole area in question, not only
part of it.
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