SOLAS regulation IV/12.2 states
that “Every ship, while at sea, shall maintain a radio watch
for broadcasts of maritime safety information on the appropriate frequency
or frequencies on which such information is broadcast for the area
in which the ship is navigating”.
At the request of the Sub-Committee on Radiocommunications,
the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO), a joint document on the drafting of maritime safety
information broadcasts was produced (the Joint IMO/IHO/WMO Manual
on Maritime Safety Information). The document was circulated to IHO
Member States under IHB CL 10/1994 and as COMSAR/Circ.4 by the Sub-Committee
on Radiocommunications and Search and Rescue (COMSAR) after its first
session in February 1996, which action was endorsed by the Maritime
Safety Committee at its sixty-sixth session in May/June 1996.
The publication contained sections from IMO resolution A.706(17),
“World-Wide Navigational Warning Service”, as amended,
and relevant sections of the WMO Publication “Manual on Marine
Meteorological Services”.
At its seventh meeting
in September 2005, the IHO’s Commission on the Promulgation
of Radio Navigational Warnings (CPRNW) established a Working Group
to review all World-Wide Navigational Warning Service (WWNWS) documentation.
The Working Group included representation from the WMO and prepared
at first, revisions to IMO as amended resolutions A.705(17), “Promulgation
of Maritime Safety Information” and A.706(17), “World-Wide
Navigational Warning Service”. The proposed revisions of the
resolutions were circulated to IHO Member States under IHB CL 104/2007,
endorsed by COMSAR at its twelfth session in April 2008 and subsequently
approved by the Maritime Safety Committee at its eighty-fifth session
in November/December 2008.
The IHO CPRNW Working Group
then prepared the revised Joint IMO/IHO/WMO Manual on Maritime Safety
Information incorporating the revised information from resolutions
A.705(17), as amended and A.706(17), as amended. The revised text
of the Joint IMO/IHO/WMO Manual on Maritime Safety Information was
circulated to IHO Member States under cover of IHB CL 70/2008, endorsed
by COMSAR at its thirteenth session in January 2009 and subsequently
approved by the Maritime Safety Committee at its eighty-sixth session
in May/June 2009.
Although this is an IMO publication,
it is intended that the responsible organizations will maintain their
respective sections of this Joint IMO/IHO/WMO Manual.