Place of Refuge for Ships in Need of Assistance - methodological approach and Croatian concept

By means of the Ordinance on Places of Refuge and the Plan for Accommodation of Ships in Need of Assistance, Croatia fulfilled the requirements of Directive 2002/59/EC and IMO Resolution A.949(23) to resolve the issue of places of refuge for ships in need of assistance, thus contributing towards solving this sensitive and complex segment in the harmonisation of Croatian legislation with European law. Pursuant to the above mentioned EU directive and IMO Resolution, Place of Refuge is defined as a place where a ship in need of assistance can find temporary accommodation for providing assistance or eliminating threat to people, ship or the environment. Ship in need of assistance or ship in distress is defined as a vessel in a position which might endanger the safety of ship, marine environment or navigation, except the situation requiring search and rescue operations. In order to define the Croatian concept, an extensive preliminary research into existing models was carried out identifying advantages and disadvantages of each. Besides worldwide experiences and solutions, account was taken of the maritime traffic, natural-geographic, and socioeconomic specific qualities of Croatia and a wider region of the Adriatic Sea. Based on research results, the concept proposal was established, to be presented to the Working group appointed by the competent administration. The concept has been adopted, incorporated into the Ordinance on Places of Refuge and Plan for Accommodation of Ships in Need of Assistance, and implemented. Croatian concept is a combination of two existing models, the procedural one and partly pre-selection model. Procedural model implies clear procedures to be followed by the competent authorities in every particular case of ship´s request for PoR. Procedures are based upon the scenarios identified through research, such as: seeking shelter to eliminate mechanical failure, to prevent penetration of water, or extinguish fire; taking shelter from unfavourable weather conditions, or seeking shelter for accommodation of an abandoned ship, taking account in each particular situation of possible consequences for environmental pollution or endangering local inhabitants and economic capacities. It is partly a pre-selection concept, as there is a large list of potential PoR which gets reduced in the iterative procedure for each particular case. In principle any sufficiently deep natural bay, sheltered from the wind and sea, or any such part of the mainland or island coast, or a port can be PoR. If such a place is uninhabited or if in its vicinity there are not any larger settlements, important economic capacities, or protected parts of nature and heritage which might be endangered, and if there are overland approach routes for the transport of equipment and people, it is a highly acceptable PoR. However, the decision is taken pursuant to Ordinance for each particular situation, in that the National Search and Rescue Coordination and VTMIS Centre, acting as the Maritime Assistance Service (MAS), draws up a proposal of several PoR on the basis of available data and situation on the spot, and passes it to a higher authority for decision making. Final decision on granting PoR is made according to Ordinance, by the person designated by the competent public administration for the safety of navigation and protection of the sea from pollution, with the consent of the ministry responsible for environment protection. Considering a large number of possible specific requests for PoR, the concept of predefining one or two or several PoR was abandoned, because in a particular situation, a predefined PoR can prove absolutely inadequate for that particular case, e.g. in terms of ship´s size and the kind of potential accident. To fit out such two or three preselected places with permanent (fixed) equipment and facilities, and keep it in stand-by operation is much more expensive. In many scenarios such PoR can even prove useless or unfavourable f