Annual General Assembly 2004 - Tasmania

Session 4B

Automatic Identification System And Its Integration On The Great Lakes And St. Lawrence Seaway

Melissa Hopkins
Adam Howell
David Ingram
Andrew Wakeham
Nautical Science, Term 6 Students
School of Maritime Studies Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland

Summary

The Automatic Identifi cation System (AIS) has been characterized as the greatest advance in navigation safety since the invention of radar. Currently every commercial vessel greater than 300 gross registered tones (GRT) transiting through the St. Lawrence Seaway must be equipped with AIS. A fi nal report on the AIS, focusing on the positive and negative aspects of the system on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway’s shipping industry, has been thoroughly researched and compiled.

The AIS is a shipboard broadcasting transponder system, operating on the very high frequency (VHF) Maritime radio band. It is capable of sending and receiving vessel information, including: course over ground, speed over ground, latitude, longitude and distance to nearby vessels. To fully understand the potential of the AIS, a background regarding the point of view of vessels, shipping companies, and shore based seaway operations is needed. Industry has been polled to get first hand views and opinions of how AIS has affected them in short and long-term objectivesand day-to-day operations. The report also outlines and discusses the technical aspects of the Automatic Identifi cation System, concerning its complete operation within the ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore based infrastructures.

This report proves that the AIS greatly benefi ts the shipping industry, for both shipboard and shore based trade, with positive aspects far outweighing any negative aspects arising from the implementation of the system. With the great success of AIS in the shipping industry on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway so far, the recommendation is that the AIS be implemented on all commercial vessels transiting the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway. The primary role of this implementation is to utilize AIS as an aid to navigation safety, and secondary as a way to improve the effi ciency of the shipping and related industries on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway.

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