Liberia issues Notice on Safety of Navigation

Liberia Maritime Authority has issued a Notice to provide advice and guidance to mariners on the importance of maintaining a regular and efficient system of charts and publications, corrections, and use of electronic updating services. The Notice also provides information on new Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) carriage requirements.

The document supersedes Marine Notice NAV-001, Rev. 06/12 and adds a new section 3.0 on electronic nautical publications and amends paragraph 1.10 to include back up arrangements for ECDIS and ENPs.

The Notice highlights that all ships irrespective of size must have nautical charts and nautical publications to plan and display the ship’s route for the intended voyage and to plot and monitor positions throughout the voyage. A type approved electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) operated with either part of, or full sets of Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) is accepted as meeting the chart carriage requirements.

The use of Raster Chart Display Systems (RCDS) will be accepted when ENC charts are not available, provided the vessel operator has trained the crew in the use of the RCDS.

Installation and implementation of ENPs on a standalone computer system shall take into consideration Regulation 15 of SOLAS Chapter V on the principles related to bridge design.

As an alternative, operators of vessels with ECDIS installed may continue to use paper nautical charts and publications as the primary means of navigation.

RELEVANT DOCUMENT (AVAILABLE ONLY TO SUBSCRIBERS):

Safety of Navigation - Nautical Charts, Publications and Notices to Mariners