The Vessel TRIAGE project is developing risk assessment of distress vessels with the support of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
The Headquarters of the Finnish Border Guard is carrying out the Vessel TRIAGE project to develop a categorisation and risk identification system for distress vessels in ship accidents. The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Finnish Transport Safety Agency and the Finnish Transport Agency from 1 June 2014–31 May 2015. During the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) from July 2013 to June 2014, the theme was "a Clean, safe and smart Baltic Sea". This project supports the improvement of maritime safety and is being financed from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs' funds for the Baltic Sea, Barents and Arctic cooperation.
The development of the Vessel TRIAGE system was started at the beginning of 2012, immediately after the Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Italy. The project that was kicked off in the summer seeks to further develop the categorisation system internationally. Maritime search and rescue authorities, maritime administration authorities, shipping companies, universities and classification societies from many countries have come on board as partners.
Benefits of the Vessel TRIAGE system
A uniform, international categorisation system describing the safety status of a distress vessel is necessary in order to assess the seriousness of the vessel's situation and to facilitate decision-making regarding search and rescue. Categorisation seeks to rapidly identify the key operational risks and commensurable vessel safety status in order to ensure appropriate SAR and further operations.
Categorisation would facilitate the maintenance of situational awareness between the authorities and the distress vessel, and enhance the communications between them. This would enhance communications and decision-making in maritime accident response not only nationally, but also internationally. No equivalent vessel categorisation systems are in use anywhere in the world as yet.
Vessel TRIAGE intends to categorise vessel safety status using colours, as shown in the figure above.
The aim: an international categorisation system
The aim of the Vessel TRIAGE project is that the categorisation system will be ready to be presented in April 2015 and would then be introduced in Finland and its neighbouring countries. In addition, steps will be taken to expand the use of the system in the Baltic Sea and the Arctic region. The categorisation concept has been presented at numerous maritime SAR forums, where it has been well received.
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