Safety Zones

Information on submitting an application for the designation of a safety zone around artificial islands or a area temporarily closed to navigation

Below there are information on the appropriate way to submit an application to establish a safety zone or a area temporarily closed to navigation.

Firstly, the following concepts should be distinguished in the Act of March 21, 1991 on maritime areas of the Republic of Poland and maritime administration (hereinafter: the Act), which concern offshore wind energy:

- Art. 24 section 1 - safety zone around artificial islands, structures and devices or their assemblies, cables or pipelines, extending no further than 500 m from the outer edges,

- Art. 48 section 1 - area temporarily closed to navigation and fishing, water sports and diving,

- Art. 3 section 1 - the establishment of the areas mentioned in this article (for the needs of state defense or security) is the responsibility of the Ministry of National Defense.

A safety zone around artificial islands... (based on Art. 24 sec. 1 of the Act) extending not more than 500m from the outer edges may be established around structures located within the Exclusive Economic Zone. The Director of the Maritime Office by means of a Decree, determines the conditions of movement within the safety zone, in particular may introduce restrictions on navigation, fishing, water sports, diving or underwater work.

An area temporarily closed to navigation… (based on Art. 48 sec. 1 of the Act) may only be designated within the limits of internal maritime waters and the territorial sea (e.g. for the purpose of HDD). The Director of the Maritime Office by means of an Ordinance, announces areas temporarily closed to navigation and fishing, water sports and diving. There are no specified restrictions on size of such area, but this area is established for a period of time.

If the requested "area temporarily closed to navigation" is located within the boundaries of a marine training ground, before submitting the application to the Director of the Maritime Office, the Investor should agree the conditions for closing such area with the relevant training ground command (General Command of the Armed Forces, Central Air Force Training Ground)..

When submitting an application for the designation of a safety zone around artificial islands or an area temporarily closed to navigation, you should take into account the time necessary to process the submitted applications.

Before the Decree or the Ordinance of the Director of the Maritime Office regarding the designation of a safety zone or an area temporarily closed comes into force (it means is published in the voivodeship official journal), it must be submitted for opinion to the minister responsible for fisheries (Art. 24 section 3 of the Act) or the Chief Inspector of Sea Fisheries (Art. 48 section 1a of the Act), who has 14 days to issue an opinion. Then the Decree or the Ordinance is forwarded to the territorially competent voivodeship office for approval (also 14 days). Therefore, it is necessary at least 6 weeks for processing submitted application.

An application to establish "an area temporarily closed to navigation" in the territorial sea or "a safety zone around artificial islands" should be addressed to the competent territorial Director of the Maritime Office.

The application should be submitted at least 6 weeks before the planned commencement date to the Maritime Office in Gdynia (ul. Chrzanowskiego 10, 81-338 Gdynia) or by e-mail address: umgdy@umgdy.gov.pl.

The application to establish "area temporarily closed to navigation" pursuant to Article 48 of the Act on maritime areas in the territorial sea should contain as a minimum:

• the legal basis and justification for the application for the establishment of a area temporarily closed;
• the time of occupation of the area and the scope of work carried out;
• the geographical coordinates of the points limiting the area in the WGS-84 system along with display on the current navigation map;
• the method of navigation marking (if requested), the geographical coordinates of the buoys' positions in the WGS-84 system along with display on the current navigation map;
• names of ships (and IMO/MMSI number) authorized to stay/work in the area;
• method of communication with ships (e.g. VHF working channel, telephone);
  
• telephone number of the onshore contact person;
• consent and conditions for closing the area agreed with the relevant training ground command, if the requested area temporarily closed to navigation is located within the boundaries of the marine training ground.
  

The application for the designation of  "safety zone around artificial islands" pursuant to Article 24 of the Act on maritime areas in the exclusive economic zone should include at least:

• • legal basis for requesting the establishment of a safety zone;
  • please provide justification for the application (details in "Files"- see polish language version)  );
  • geographical coordinates of the reference point in the WGS-84 system and the radius of the safety zone along with display on the current navigation map;
  • restrictions to be effective in safety zone;
  • telephone number of the onshore contact person

Including the above-described data in the application, properly addressing and timely submission of the application will speed up processing of the document.

Safety zone around the ship

Based on the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972, as amended, (hereinafter "COLREG"), ships at sea should sail in a specified manner, maintain a safe speed and distance, as per Rules 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19. The conduct of sea users in accordance with COLREG should be sufficient to ensure that the generally called "construction ships" are provided with a safe space to carry out their work.

The term "construction ships" includes:

- ships restricted in her ability to manoeuvre (Rule 3 (g) of COLREG), i.e. ships which from the nature of her work is restricted in her ability to manoeuvre as required by COLREG and therefore is unable to keep out of the way of another ship (e.g. ship engaged in laying cables; dredging; research; conducting underwater work; ship engaged in towing, which severly restrict towing ship and her tow in their ability to deviate from their course) are "by definition" privileged over other ships;

- Ships anchored on multiple anchors (cables under tension);

- Jack-up ships (supported on the bottom).

The establishment of a safety zone around a construction ship and the size of this zone is not clearly regulated and should be considered individually, taking into account:

- the nature of the work performed (e.g. underwater work using divers; oil and gas drilling);

- the safety of the working ship;

- safety of other sea users (e.g. establishing a zone around ships working on or near traffic line in traffic separation schemes should enable other ships that are recommended to use such line to use it);

- existing international and local legal regulations;

- environmental protection.

The safety zone around a construction ship is primarily intended to provide additional "safety zone" for the work being performed, e.g.:

- seismic ships - they tow streamers that are often several kilometres long, the streamers are poorly visible, the noise generated by passing ships can disrupt the readings;

- ships anchored on multiple anchors, maintaining their position using tensioned anchor cables, where the anchor cables, especially in shallow waters, run at small depths and can be damaged by passing-by ships; it is advisable to mark the positions of the anchors with a special sign.

- cable-laying ships - in accordance with the Convention of 14 March 1884 for the Protection of Submarine Cables, if a cable-laying or repairing ship complies with COLREG ("shows" appropriate navigation lights and shapes), it should be bypassed by a distance of at least one nautical mile (1852m) (Article 5 of the Convention); when determining the safety zone, due to its size, the traffic of other ships and the need to ensure their safe navigation in traffic separation shemes should be taken into account;

- other construction ships - the zone should not exceed 500m.

Information on the safety zone around a construction vessel is reported in the application for the issue of a navigational warning submitted to the Hydrographic Office of the Navy (BHMW) and for the information of the Maritime Office.