Navigation safety and related technical standards

Notices to skippers are issued by state authorities responsible for navigation safety in order to participants in navigation about changes in the waterway that may have an impact on planning and navigation itself. Traditionally,  they are distributed by VHF, in writing, on notice boards or by fax. Primarily, the port master offices collect, process and analyze all relevant information important for navigation and navigational infrastructure overall.

The content of the notices mostly refers to:
  • infromation on the depths in the waterway
  • organization of sport and other events on the waterway
  • prohibited navigation in case of river engineering and underwater works related to infrastructure
  • prohibited navigation due to removal of discovered mine explosive devices
  • other events of importance for unhindered navigation

Recently, many countries have switched to reporting Notices to Skippers via web service, namely via the corresponding digitized forms within the RIS.