Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Conducts 'Ship Traffic Route Safety Assessment' to Prevent Accidents and Improve Maritime Traffic Environment

[Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced on the 7th that starting from the 8th, it will conduct a 'Ship Traffic Route Safety Assessment' to prevent ship accidents such as collisions and groundings in narrow coastal waterways and hazardous material handling ports, and to improve the maritime traffic environment.

For narrow coastal waterways, the process involves confirming the ship traffic environment through analysis of marine accident cases, surveys of ship traffic volume and congestion, and surveys of sea area users, followed by verification through ship navigation simulations to identify improvement tasks. For hazardous material handling ports, the safety assessment evaluates overall navigation conditions within the port, including routes, anchorage areas, turning zones, pilots and tugboats, and navigation regulations.

This assessment was annualized to identify hidden risk factors in ship traffic routes following the oil spill accident of the Uisanho in February 2014. Since its first implementation in 2015, evaluations have been completed for eight narrow coastal waterways such as Yeongheung Channel and eleven hazardous material handling ports including Yeosu and Gwangyang ports. Representative cases where problems were identified and improved through this assessment include the expansion of the anchorage area at Ulsan Port, relocation of the pilot station at Daesan Port, and the commencement of the removal of underwater rocks in the Gwangyang Port route.

This year, evaluations are scheduled to be conducted by the end of December on five narrow coastal waterways including Mokpo Yuldo-Dalrisudo and three hazardous material handling ports including Pohang Port, Donghae Mukho Port, and Okgae Port. Maritime traffic safety experts from public institutions and academia such as the Korea Maritime Traffic Safety Authority, Mokpo National Maritime University, and Korea Maritime Consulting, as well as private companies, will participate.

Based on the findings from this safety assessment, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries plans to produce navigation safety guidelines for each sea area and port, distribute booklets, and post them on the websites of regional maritime affairs and fisheries offices.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.