To prevent information overflow and clutter on the ARPA radar and/or
ECDIS display, relevant information about individual ships must be selected.
c) Assessing incoming information
Due to the operational function (collision avoidance, navigation, SAR)
and to the decisions to be made, incoming information must to be properly assessed, e.g.
- using speed-over-ground or speed-through-the-water;
- course-over-ground or heading etc..
d) Interaction / verbal communication with other vessels and VTCs
Knowing the identity, status, type, port of destination and other
relevant data of other ships, it may be necessary to interact in order to plan evasive
manoeuvres. Also, verbal communication with VTCs (though reduced) will still be necessary.
8.3 Consequences
The impact of effective on-board "Transponder" use on the
manning of ships may be summarized as follows:
- Small reduction of workload
- Significant reduction of the "Human Element";
- No significant increase in required qualification.
Of course, if "Transponder" technology should lead to
computer-assisted and automatically executed collision avoidance manoeuvres, potentially
less manpower may be required on-board.
9. The Impact on MET
Because the impact of "Transponders" on manning with respect
to capabilities and qualification is rather small, the impact on MET can also be
considered rather small (as long as automatic collision avoidance manoeuvres are not
concerned). With regards to MET requirements the following can be stated:
1. The officer of the watch must be enabled
- to fulfill the necessary "Transponder"-related operations
(see Section 7):
a) Select and set data to be transmitted
b) Operate and select incoming Information
c) Assess incoming information
d) Interaction / verbal communication with other vessels and VTCs;
