587 Marine Accident Victims Over 5 Years... "Location Transmission of Fallers to Coast Guard"

Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Establishes '2021 Maritime Safety Implementation Plan' with Coast Guard, Meteorological Agency, and Local Governments

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] A system that immediately transmits the location to the Coast Guard when a passenger falls overboard will be distributed in the future.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced on the 14th that it has established and will implement the '2021 Maritime Safety Implementation Plan' with 22 organizations including the Korea Coast Guard, Korea Meteorological Administration, central government agencies, metropolitan cities and provinces, and public institutions.

According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, it established the 5-year '2nd National Maritime Safety Basic Plan' from 2017 to 2021 under the Maritime Safety Act. This year's implementation plan will carry out the basic plan tasks and promote new tasks reflecting recent maritime accident trends.

According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, 587 people were affected by maritime accidents over five years from 2016 to 2020. Among them, 547 people, accounting for 93%, were victims of the three major large-scale accidents.

The number of passengers using multi-use vessels such as passenger ships and fishing boats exceeded 20 million annually, and 500 million tons of hazardous materials are transported by ship each year.

Accordingly, the three major accident types causing frequent casualties?safety accidents, capsizing/sinking, and collision accidents?will be intensively managed.

To prevent casualties caused by falling into the sea among safety accidents, promotion of life jacket wearing will be strengthened.

In particular, the 'Haerodeu Saver,' which detects salinity and water temperature upon falling and automatically sends the location of the fallen person to the Coast Guard, will be distributed.

To prevent capsizing and sinking due to deteriorating weather, real-time weather information will be provided to workers through the Korea Maritime Transportation Safety Authority and the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives.

To easily check for overloading, safety standard lines will be marked on fishing vessels over 5 tons. Inspections will be conducted to ensure that the watertightness of the hull is properly maintained. Watertightness refers to the property of preventing water penetration.

Marine navigation devices and mobile apps with collision warning functions will be distributed.

Additionally, management of vulnerable vessel types such as public-use vessels and hazardous material carriers will be strengthened.

Funds will be provided to replace six aging passenger ships with new vessels. To prevent speeding accidents on fishing boats, local governments will set maximum speeds in collision-risk areas. Night navigation of vessels without radar will be restricted.

Furthermore, from the second half of the year, a 'Safety Investment Disclosure System' will be introduced to encourage voluntary safety investments by shipping companies.

Shipping companies must disclose investment details and costs in safety areas such as ship equipment improvements and crew training.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries plans to revise laws and systems related to route setting and management and develop equipment that automatically monitors speeding and navigation violations. It will also start building big data to discover and improve vulnerable traffic areas.

Jung Taeseong, Director of Maritime Safety Policy at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, said, "We plan to regularly listen to field opinions and hold inspection meetings with related agencies to ensure the implementation plan is effectively carried out."

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