RECALLING Article 15(j) of the Convention on the International
Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Assembly in
relation to regulations and guidelines concerning maritime safety
and the prevention and control of marine pollution from ships,
RECALLING ALSO resolution A.858(20) by which the Assembly,
recognizing the need for an expeditious adoption and amendment procedure
for traffic separation schemes, routeing measures other than traffic
separation schemes, including the designation and substitution of
archipelagic sea lanes, and ship reporting systems, resolved that
all the aforementioned functions shall be performed by the Maritime
Safety Committee on behalf of the Organization,
NOTING the urgent need to implement the traffic separation
schemes In Bornholmsgat and North of Rügen and amendments to
the traffic separation schemes Off Gotland Island and South of Gedser;
a recommended deep-water route in the eastern Baltic Sea, and new
areas to be avoided at Hoburgs Bank and Norra Midsjöbanken proposed
by the Governments of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland and Sweden in order to enhance maritime safety,
safety of navigation and protection of the marine environment in the
area concerned, and the invitation by the Maritime Safety Committee
at its eightieth session to the Assembly to adopt the routeing systems,
subject to the Sub-Committee on Safety of Navigation being satisfied
that all the pertinent criteria had been met,
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the Guidelines for the Identification
and Designation of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas adopted by resolution
A.927(22),
HAVING NOTED the designation by the Marine Environment Protection
Committee, by resolution MEPC.136(53),
of the Baltic Sea Area as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA)
including the establishment of Associated Protective Measures (APMs),
HAVING CONSIDERED the report of the Maritime Safety Committee
at its eightieth session and the recommendations of the Sub-Committee
on Safety of Navigation at its fifty-first session,
1 ADOPTS the proposed traffic separation schemes
“In Bornholmsgat” and “North of Rügen”
and amendments to the traffic separation schemes “Off Gotland
Island” and “South of Gedser”, set out in annex
1 to the present resolution;
2 ADOPTS ALSO the new recommended deep-water route
in the eastern Baltic Sea and the new areas to be avoided at Hoburgs
Bank and Norra Midsjöbanken, set out in annex 2 to the present
resolution;
3 DECIDES that the routeing systems so adopted
will be implemented at 0000 hours UTC on 1 July 2006;
4 DECIDES FURTHER that the ships' routeing systems
adopted in operative paragraphs 1 and 2 should be considered as the
Associated Protective Measures (APMs) for the Baltic Sea Area;
5 REQUESTS the Secretariat to issue, as soon as
possible, the relevant COLREG.2 and SN circulars containing the aforementioned
routeing systems.