The IALA Long-range Tracking Seminar - Global Tracking - was held from Nov. 9-11, 2005 at the Grand Plaza Parkroyal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, co-hosted by the Light Dues Board Peninsular, Malaysia. The workshop was attended by approximately 60 delegates, including delegates from more than 23 countries.

　

 The Seminar provided an opportunity for discussion on issues surrounding long-range tracking of vessels, and included presentations from the different sectors involved in such a service. In addition, break-out discussion sessions provided participants with the opportunity to discuss specific areas of concern surrounding Functional, Technical and Policy/Legal issues. The resulting text was drafted into a submission for IMO. The presentations identified many benefits and challenges of long-range tracking, noting that both regional and global tracking of vessels is presently taking place and has been for a number of years.

　

　

 At the 10^th International VTS Symposium, held in Hong Kong, Peoples Republic of China, in February 2004 it was concluded that safety and security issues highlighted the need to improve communications between VTS Centres, other authorities and stakeholders concerned with the safety of shipping, ports and waterways. The Symposium also noted that there may be advantages for safety, security and traffic management if long range automatic ship reporting were to be used by ships and shore authorities.

　

 In response to this recommendation, IALA and the Canadian Coast Guard co-hosted a Seminar, 'Tracking All The Way?', held in November 2004. The Seminar provided an opportunity for discussion on issues surrounding the long-range tracking of vessels, and included presentations from technology providers. The presentations identified many benefits and challenges of long-range tracking, noting that global tracking of certain vessels is presently taking place and has been for a number of years. The Seminar concluded that IALA should continue to contribute to the development of a global vessel tracking system.

　

 As a follow-up to the Victoria Seminar, a seminar on the Global Tracking of Vessels was held from Nov. 9-11, 2005 at the Grand Plaza Parkroyal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The workshop was attended by over 60 delegates, including delegates from more than 23 countries.

　

 The seminar attempted to address the perception of long range tracking, involving all aspects such as Search and Rescue, Pollution Prevention, Security, IT etc. The four main objectives of the Seminar were to:

　

 The goal was to build on work already underway in IMO. To ensure this, reference documents from both COMSAR and MSC were made available to the delegates. Discussion groups provided an opportunity to discuss the issues in detail, and three groups were formed to deal with issues at the Technical, Functional and Policy/Legal levels.

 The Programme of the Seminar is attached at Annex 2 and a list of the participants is given at Annex 4.

　

 The presentations were divided into topic specific sessions designed to provide background information on the requirements for long-range tracking, the benefits and challenges and the technologies presently available and under development. The presentations , as provided during the seminar were included on the final CD of the seminar.

　

 Mr Kanalingan of the Light Dues Board Peninsular, Malaysia, welcomed participants to the opening session of the Seminar. He then invited Mr. Clive Davidson, President, IALA, to provide the keynote presentation.

　

 In his presentation, Mr. Davidson noted that the maritime world is on the cusp of change, with increased use of electronic systems, viability of ECDIS and the move the 'e-Navigation' - a process whereby all aspects of navigation will be integrated in the delivery and electronic display of accurate and customized navigation information. He stressed that global tracking of vessels is a reality and that there is a need to harmonize the approach to ensure an effective and viable system. A copy of the keynote presentation is included in Annex 1.

　

 Mr Kanalingan then presented HE Dato Tengku Azlan Ibni Almarhum Sultan Abu Bakar Alhaj, Deputy Minister of Transport, Malaysia, who provided a welcome on behalf of the host country, Malaysia. The Deputy Minister noted the importance of vessel identification and tracking in safety and security, with specific reference to the Straits of Malacca. He noted that safety was the first and foremost concern, and that Malaysia was proud to host the Long Range Tracking Seminar. He then officially opened the seminar and wished participants a successful, and productive session.

　

　

 T. Kruuse highlighted the strategy of IALA in looking at digital aids to navigation techniques, and how this relates to the focus of the seminar. He noted that this seminar builds on the results of the Nov. 2004 seminar, where the building blocks were identified for integrated global information systems. The requirement is now to ensure that the building blocks are used to best advantage in determining agreed functional requirements, with technical solutions.

　

 T. Kruuse concluded by urging delegates to look carefully at the technology available, to think critically on the requirements and determine a way forward to ensure a harmonized system.

　

 In introducing the session, M. Sollosi reviewed the results of the IALA 'Tracking all the Way?' seminar, held in Nov. 2004 in Victoria, BC, Canada. He noted how the conclusions and recommendations from the Seminar linked to the objectives of this Seminar.

　

 In addition, behalf of William Cairns, M. Sollosi provided an update on the status of the COMSAR Correspondence group.

　

 The presentation identified that the technical aspects of LRIT are being addressed at the Radiocommunications and Search & Rescue Sub-Committee (COMSAR). The draft performance standards for LRIT were developed at COMSAR 9 in February 2005 and forwarded to the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 80) as 'works in progress'. COMSAR 9 established a Correspondence Group under U.S. chairmanship, to resolve the outstanding LRIT technical issues. During MSC 80 additional guidance was provided to the Correspondence Group. The Group has 14 Tasks to resolve on matters such as international databases, data security, archiving and destruction of data, information latency, and system architecture. The Group is also addressing the cost of this system, the types of information needed, and other uses of LRIT (e.g., RCC use of LRIT information for SAR). The result of this work will be a robust set of draft performance standards to be used as input for COMSAR 10. This paper will address the directions from COMSAR and MSC, the current status of the group's deliberations, and the Group's plan for it's submission to COMSAR 10.

　

 The work underway at IMO was further explained by IMO representative G. Mapplebeck, (Session 5 refers).

　

 Specific reference to Task 7 - Requirements in Solas vs Performance Standards and Task 8 - System Architectures resulted in frirther information on each of these tasks being provided to participants as background for the discussion groups.

　

 A. Kwang provided a presentation on the GICOMS system in Korea. He noted that, even though the 90% world trade is transported by ships, the marine transportation is vulnerable to incidents and illegal activities by piracy and terrorism against ships. Hence, new policy and strategy is needed to protect shipping routes including the adoption of new technologies and management systems to enhance navigational safety, minimize pollution risk and ensure security at sea.

　

 Korea has constructed the GICOMS system in order to control the national marine crisis management system, based on vessel monitoring system (VMS). The Korean national VMS was established to track all Korean vessels in all waters and all foreign vessels in Korean waters. The tracking information can be used for monitoring the safety, security and environmental protection in various governmental agencies through an information sharing system.

　

　

 In conclusion, A. Kwang noted that, in order to utilize the location information of vessels to accomplish the purpose of safety and environmental protection, LRIT should be developed in collaboration with other safety system such as the Ship Reporting System described in SOLAS chapter V.

　

 Discussion focused on the functional requirements and information sharing to various agencies and services - both within and outside national organizations.

　

 With specific reference to GICOMS, A. Kwang noted that the Korean government is talking about sharing information with other countries; however the protocols for this are not yet in place. In addition, he noted that the concept is to minimize manual reporting with the use of a central controlling system. In addition, GICOMS is built using existing carriage requirements - GMDSS equipment, ship mobile phones, etc.