Annual General Assembly 2006 - Dalian

Project Session 1

The Baltic Sea PSSA And Navigational
Associated Protected Measures
- New Challenge For Navigation Education

Adam Weintrit

ABSTRACT

The Baltic Sea has officially been classified (2005) by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as a new item on the short list of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSA). A PSSA designation-which requires ships to take special care when navigating through areas of ecological, economic, cultural or scientific significance-can be used to protect a variety of marine and coastal habitats.
The Baltic Sea has some of the busiest maritime traffic in the world. Large number of islands, narrow straits and routes which are difficult to navigate, and long annual periods of ice cover greatly increase the risk of a devastating oil accident in the Baltic Sea.
A PSSA can be protected by Associated Protected Measures (APM) which are huge challenge for navigation education not only in Gdynia Maritime University but also in the rest of maritime universities around the world. It is something new that corrections in navigation course outline should be done.
In the paper the Author would like to present all aspects of that problem, including proposal of model course in operational use of APM in PSSA.
The paper discusses Baltic Sea PSSA, navigational associated protected measures (APM) and their impact on Maritime Education and Training (MET) especially teaching of Navigation.

Keywords: navigation; safety at sea; PSSA (particularly sensitive sea area); APM (associated protected measures); MET (maritime education and training); Baltic Sea

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