Sergei Rostopshin, deputy director for navigation safety, VTMS St Petersburg chief, RVTMS deputy chief for operational activity, and Mikhail Luzhenkov, engineer-instructor of the fleet service, took part in the 17^th session of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) Maritime Working Group that had been held at Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping in St Petersburg on October 10-12, 2017. The representatives of the North-Western Basin Branch participated in the conference at the invitation of Russia’s Transport Ministry.

The session focused on a wide range of issues related to:

• marine environment prevention subject to shipping at the Baltic Sea;
• accidental pollution prevention;
• the operation of intake port facilities to ensure the work with shipboard wastes;
• prevention of transfer of undesirable aquatic organisms with shipboard ballast waters;
• air contamination prevention and issues in respect to strengthening navigation safety.

The meeting involved the delegation from the world countries-members of HELCOM, which united 9 states along the Baltic Sea, and representatives of non-governmental organizations that are HELCOM observers.

The Russian delegation formed by the Transport Ministry included representatives of Rosmorrechflot, the FSUE “Rosmorport” North-Western Basin Branch, FSI Marine Rescue Service of Rosmorrechflot, FSBI Administration of Baltic Seaports, Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping, as well as representatives of other organizations.

During the session, Sergey Rostopshin gave a report on creating a pilot e-navigation zone in the Gulf of Finland within the national technological initiative. Increasing the efficiency and navigation safety through using new information exchange technologies between ships, coastal services, operators of shipping companies and control organizations within the pilot zone is the priority of the project.

Summing up the results of his report at the session, Sergey Rostopshin underlined: “Within the e-navigation concept it is necessary to develop common procedures of interaction between the parties-members of national projects in the frame of integrating national pilot e-navigation zones in the Baltic Sea.”