ANNEX B
DRAFT
COMSAR CIRCULAR
CLARIFICATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SEARCH AND RESCUE (SAR) AND MARITIME SAETY INFORMATION (MSI)
1 INTRODUCTION
Some IMO documents on GMDSS treat search and rescue communications (especially shore-to-ship distress alerts) as completely distinct from maritime safety information (MSI). This is the case of SOLAS regulation IV/4 and 3.2.22 to 3.2.25 and 3.2.30 of the GMDSS Handbook.
In other documents, however, SAR alerts are treated as MSI. This is the case in resolution A.705 (17) "Promulgation of Maritime Safety Information" (1.1), figure 1, page 3 of the GMDSS Handbook, and the International SafetyNET Manual. The list is not exhaustive.
Lastly, resolution A.706 (17)1 "World-Wide Navigational Warning Service" and the Joint IMO/IHO/WMO Manual on Maritime Safety Information (COMSAR/Circ.15) envisage cases where search and rescue operations constitute navigational warnings, which are indisputably one of the categories of MSI. The latter document further adds to the confusion by postponing the drafting of a chapter 5 - Search and Rescue.
It was this confusion, too, which led to the promulgation of circular COMSAR/Circ.3 "Relations between NAVAREA Co-ordinators and Rescue Co-ordination Centres".
It is therefore useful to clarify the situation, for the benefit of personnel of MRCC and services broadcasting MSI, as well as for seafarers.
Annex 1 contains extracts from the documents concerned.
2 POINTS FOR CLARIFICATION
2.1 What is MSI?
2.1.1 One must first try to understand what MSI is, because any confusion which may arise comes from the contradictory definitions of MSI in IMO texts.
Reference must be made to SOLAS since that is the most important text in the hierarchy of IMO texts. SOLAS (see text in annex 1) does not mention SAR communications in its definition of MSI (regulation IV/2). However, in regulation IV/4, it distinguishes clearly between distress alerts and MSI. This distinction is essential. An alert message may be legally binding on the captain to intervene (pursuant to the provisions of SOLAS regulation V/10, recalling that SOLAS chapter V applies to all stumps). On the other hand, a navigational warning signalling the disappearance of a ship is merely a request for collaboration with the SAR service, without in any way changing the normal operation of the ship, to complement the active search in progress or when a search has been fruitless or impracticable.
1 Amended by circulars MSC/Circ.685 and MSC/Circ.750
