4.2 NAVAREA warnings
Clasification Society 2024 - Version 9.40
Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - Circulars - Maritime Safety Committee - MSC.1/Circular.1310 – Revised Joint IMO/IHO/WMO Manual on Maritime Safety Information (MSI) – (8 June 2009) - Annex - 4 – Navigational Warnings for the World-Wide Navigational Warning Service - 4.2 NAVAREA warnings

4.2 NAVAREA warnings

  4.2.1 NAVAREA warnings are concerned with the information detailed below which ocean-going mariners require for their safe navigation. This includes, in particular, new navigational hazards and failures of important aids to navigation as well as information which may require changes to planned navigational routes.

  4.2.2 The following subjects are considered suitable for broadcast as NAVAREA warnings. This list is not exhaustive and should be regarded only as a guideline. Furthermore, it presupposes that sufficiently precise information about the item has not previously been disseminated in a Notice to Mariners:

  • .1 casualties to lights, fog signals, buoys and other aids to navigation affecting main shipping lanes;

  • .2 the presence of dangerous wrecks in or near main shipping lanes and, if relevant, their marking;

  • .3 establishment of major new aids to navigation or significant changes to existing ones when such establishment or change, might be misleading to shipping;

  • .4 the presence of large unwieldy tows in congested waters;

  • .5 drifting hazards (including derelict vessels, ice, mines, containers, other large items, etc.);

  • .6 areas where search and rescue (SAR) and anti-pollution operations are being carried out (for avoidance of such areas);

  • .7 the presence of newly discovered rocks, shoals, reefs and wrecks likely to constitute a danger to shipping, and, if relevant, their marking;

  • .8 unexpected alteration or suspension of established routes;

  • .9 cable or pipe-laying activities, the towing of large submerged objects for research or exploration purposes, the employment of manned or unmanned submersibles, or other underwater operations constituting potential dangers in or near shipping lanes;

  • .10 the establishment of research or scientific instruments in or near shipping lanes;

  • .11 the establishment of offshore structures in or near shipping lanes;

  • .12 significant malfunctioning of radio-navigation services and shore-based maritime safety information radio or satellite services;

  • .13 information concerning special operations which might affect the safety of shipping, sometimes over wide areas, e.g., naval exercises, missile firings, space missions, nuclear tests, ordnance dumping zones, etc. It is important that where the degree of hazard is known, this information is included in the relevant warning. Whenever possible such warnings should be originated not less than five days in advance of the scheduled event and reference may be made to relevant national publications in the warning;

  • .14 acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships;

  • .15 tsunamis and other natural phenomena, such as abnormal changes to sea level;

  • .16 World Health Organization (WHO) health advisory information; and

  • .17 security-related requirementsfootnote

Parent topic: 4 – Navigational Warnings for the World-Wide Navigational Warning Service
Copyright 2022 Clasifications Register Group Limited, International Maritime Organization, International Labour Organization or Maritime and Coastguard Agency. All rights reserved. Clasifications Register Group Limited, its affiliates and subsidiaries and their respective officers, employees or agents are, individually and collectively, referred to in this clause as 'Clasifications Register'. Clasifications Register assumes no responsibility and shall not be liable to any person for any loss, damage or expense caused by reliance on the information or advice in this document or howsoever provided, unless that person has signed a contract with the relevant Clasifications Register entity for the provision of this information or advice and in that case any responsibility or liability is exclusively on the terms and conditions set out in that contract.