The EC could establish a mandatory reporting scheme that requires vessels on voy-ages to any European port to report – at least once per period – the fuel consumed. In order to verify information, the reporting should mandate:
Amount of fuel uptakes (e.g. BFDN)
Location of fuel uptakes (e.g. BFDN)
Date of fuel uptake (e.g. BFDN)
Carbon content of fuel uptake (measured – or by choosing default values)
List of visited ports (via log-book entries)
Distances travelled between ports (via log-book entries)
Fuel consumed per distance travelled [t/nm] and while in ports [t/24h] (via log-book entries)
The reporting could be established electronically, via fax or paper and associated with a fine for non-reporting – similar to the procedures established by the US Coast Guard for ballast water reporting.
Regulation 11.2) Thus, while ship reporting systems might be developed by contracting nation states, their implementation may require action by the IMO. As a consequence, legal constraints might hinder the establishment of monitoring and reporting systems that would go beyond already established technical installations. On the other hand, SOLAS leaves room for national reporting systems not reported to and not dissemi-nated by the IMO.
Regulation 19 (SOLAS Chapter V) lays out the requirements for ship-borne naviga-tional systems and equipment. All ships with 300 gross tonnage and more, engaged in international voyages, all cargo ships of 500 gross tonnage and all passenger ships ir-respective of their size have been required since 2002 to be fitted with an automatic identification system (AIS). In 2006 a second system was introduced to the SOLAS convention that establishes the Long Range Identification and Tracking System (LRIT).
(MSC 2006a, 5.74 ff) The LRIT was established with the clear intention of also using the system for environmental purposes.
7.2.1.1 AIS – Automated Identification System
The AIS is an electronic device that automatically transmits information of the ship in regular intervals to receiving stations. The information transmitted allows the geo-graphic tracking and distance monitoring of vessels. It includes the vessels’ identity (IMO-number) and vessel type, its position, course and speed. Port of origin is not re-ported and only in some cases do vessels report the port of destination and expected time of arrival. (US Coast Guard 2002)
The AIS is a radio-based (VHF) signal with a limited range. The prime purposes of the AIS signals are to inform other vessels and shore-based facilities for safety purposes on the movement of the ship. The range of the AIS radio signal is approximately 100 km or 50 nm. However, it may depend less on weather conditions and the height of the antenna and receiver. Thus the existing net of shore-based receivers would not be ca-pable of tracking and monitoring the vessel routes and distances in international waters beyond approximately 100 km offshore. A European network of base stations has been developed (EU 2002 and Figure 5).
However, the World’s Radio Communication Conference allowed the two existing VHF frequencies AIS-1 and AIS-2 to be picked up by satellites as well. AIS signals can be picked up by satellites and aircraft surveillance, covering a much larger area than what would be possible by land-based receivers.
The capabilities of today’s AIS and space-based receivers are nonetheless limited. The largest problem is the cancelling out of signals if too many signals are received or if vessels are too close to each other. Analyses of the ship density in European waters have shown that the system may be saturated and the ship detection may drops to-wards zero (Høye et al. 2006). The solution to this problem may be to use a more di-rectional AIS antenna, limiting the field of view and thereby decreasing the number of ships simultaneously visible to the AIS sensor. Other options for converting the existing AIS to a functional global monitoring system are dedicated channels, shortening of
messages, reducing reporting intervals and limiting the reporting vessels to those out-side of land-based receivers in order to increase the capacity of the receivers (Høye et al. 2006).
A private firm – Com Dev International – based in Ontario, Canada, has announced that their experimental satellite NTS has successfully detected AIS signals, even in high density shipping areas. The system is supposed to begin full operation in 2010.33. The AIS system already has a long-range option providing the possibility for ships out-side coastal areas to transmit their information via satellite (Inmarsat) Inmarsat C, mini-C or D+34. Reporting today would be on demand from coastal authorities and volun-tary.35 Whether commercially offered surveillance data could be used for national policy setting and enforcement
remains is also a legal question.
Furthermore, while the open accessibility of AIS data may be used for environ-mental reporting purposes, the open accessability has been received as deficiency by governments. Concerns were raised in the Marine Security Committee (MSC) that openly accessible AIS data could be detrimental to the safety and security of ships and port facilities.
The issue of concern is the use of data by terrorists, pi-rates and belligerent nations (MSC 2004, Kuhn 2009).
Figure 5: European AIS base stations and coverage.
Source: EMSA (2009)
33 http://micro.newswire.ca/release.cgi?rkey=1706104804&view=28380-0&Start=0
34 Inmarsat – International Maritime Satellite – was established in 1979 by the IMO. The purpose is to enhance the safety at areas at sea that are not covered by radio wave systems. Twelve satellites cover nearly the entire globe, except north and south of the 70th latitudes. Inmarsat C is a digital satel-lite communications system that can send and receive text and numeric data. Mini C is a compact mo-bile version of Inmarsat C. Most Inmarsat C and Mini C stations are integrated with Global Naviga-tional Satellite Systems (GNSS), such as GPS, that provides continuous positioning and allows posi-tion reporting. Inmarsat D+ is a comparable system with lower transmitting frequencies.
35 http://www.inmarsat.com/Maritimesafety/lrti.html
7.2.1.2 LRIT – Long Range Identification and Tracking System
The Long Range Identification and Tracking System (LRIT) was made mandatory in 2006 in order to improve the safety at seas. It is applicable to the ship types defined in SOLAS Chapter V Regulation 19. LRIT establishes a multilateral agreement for sharing LRIT information for security, and search and rescue purposes, amongst SOLAS Con-tracting Governments. The LRIT information that ships are required to transmit includes the ship's identity, location and date and time of the position. One of the more important distinctions between LRIT and AIS, apart from the obvious one of range, is that, whereas AIS is a broadcast system, data derived through LRIT will be available only to the recipients who are entitled to receive such information and safeguards concerning the confidentiality of those data have been built into the regulatory provisions.
Contracting governments are entitled to receive LRIT information of their own flagged ships and of all ships which have indicated entering a port facility of that state, regard-less of the location of that vessel. Vessels that have not indicated a call at a port facility are to deliver data if they are within 1000 nautical miles off the shores of the nation state and not within the jurisdiction of another contracting government (MSC 2006b).
Vessels are protected from data requests if they are within the territorial waters of their flag state. In 2007, the MSC agreed that contracting governments may also request LRIT data for marine environmental protection purposes (MSC 2007). Today there are 62 contracting governments integrated into the LRIT system or which are awaiting inte-gration (IMO 2009b).
7.2.1.3 Legal constraints regarding automated monitoring systems
As of today, vessels above a certain size transmit signals through their AIS transmitters in regular intervals. The vessel’s position is automatically transmitted at pre-set inter-vals and may be received by communication systems on board other ships or on shore.
The question arises of whether a port state can impose conditions on ships to use such a vessel monitoring system in order to use the information received through the AIS for the assessment of CO2 emissions under an ETS regime. There is little doubt that port states are free to regulate that vessels have to fit their ships themselves with an AIS and that the AIS is used in the territorial seas and the EEZ (Treves 2007). However, the basis for the use of the AIS on high seas and third state territory is much more dis-putable, because the prescription of such use could be a violation of the principle of freedom of navigation.
The constraints in the use of data transmitted by a vessel monitoring system for the en-forcement and control of an ETS regime shall be considered in more depth in chapter 12.
7.2.1.4 Discussion on automated vessel monitoring
The benefit of AIS data is their automatic generation and thus their potentially unre-stricted access by nation states. Land-based receivers are technically sound and data could be freely utilized for environmental monitoring purposes. Whether the
unre-stricted access is legal under international law has not been finally resolved and access may be limited to territorial waters and vessels that have announced their intent to call at a community port.
Furthermore, a ubiquitous coverage can currently not be ensured because not all signals may be picked up by current satellite technology. Technically, the reception through satellites likely becomes feasible within some years. More significantly, the space-based use of AIS data is currently not regulated at the IMO level. Regulation may be forthcoming that either restricts or allows the use of AIS data. Until confirmation on the technical feasibility of satellite AIS reception and the legal use of such data, a 100 % monitoring and reporting of vessels by using their automated AIS data cannot be assured.
The LRIT data would be similarly sufficient for distance monitoring and a near global satellite reception exists. Its limitations are the current legal limits through the guid-ance and regulations by the IMO. The stated prime purpose remains safety and se-curity. LRIT data can only be requested from ships sailing beyond 1000 miles off shore if they have indicated a port visit. Thus, under today’s rules, it would be easy for ves-sels to deny the delivery of LRIT data to governments for large parts of their voyages.
The provision to use LRIT data for marine environmental protection purposes may be interpreted to allow data acquisition for climate change protection purposes, but no de-tails have been specified. Thus the design of a monitoring system needs to take the le-gal circumstances into account. It should be examined whether European countries, for example, could make the permission to call at a European port depend on the perma-nent exchange of LRIT data.