Murmansk Branch News

Delegation Of Vessel Traffic Control Specialists From Norway Visits The Murmansk Branch

A meeting of representatives of the FSUE “Rosmorport” Murmansk Branch and the  Norwegian Vessel Traffic Service Center in Vardo was held on 16 December in Murmansk. The main subject of discussion was exchange of the information on operation of the Barents Ship Reporting System (Barents SRS).

During the meeting the parties discussed a range of issues related to the coordination of the actions of Russia and Norway for more effective interaction of services of two countries, performing monitoring and control over vessel traffic in the Barents Sea.

Norwegian colleagues introduced the recent changes in their service operation to the representatives of the Murmansk Branch, that have been made since the last meeting, held in 2013, showed a presentation and gave the Russian specialists access to the Norwegian segment of the Barents SRS database on a permanent basis.

Barents SRS provides to Russia and Norway an opportunity to promptly obtain information on sea vessels in its coverage area and targets to enhance the navigation safety level in this navigation area.

This system started to operate in 2013 and became the first international automatic system of specialized information exchange in the Barents Sea.

Kola Bay VTS employees, in turn, showed the guests from Norway a presentation on their service work and introduced to them both the development prospects of Kola Bay VTS and plans on construction and putting into operation of Kandalaksha Bay VTS.

The meeting, held in the form of the expert dialogue in the field of vessel traffic control and vessel traffic management system operation, not only yielded practical benefits for all the participants, but also became a good tradition of interaction between Russia and Norway in the field of enhancing the navigation safety in the Barents Sea.