ABSTRACT
RECALLING Article 15(j) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organisation concerning the functions of the Assembly in relation to regulations and guidelines concerning maritime safety and the prevention and control of marine pollution from ships,
CONSIDERING problems reported by Member Governments in regard to the proper operation of the GMDSS, in particular that false distress alerts are becoming a major obstacle to the efficient operation of search and rescue (SAR) services,
RECALLING that the GMDSS was developed on, the basis of resolution 6 of the International Conference on Maritime Search and Rescue, 1979, and that according to that resolution the GMDSS should provide, among other things, the essential radio elements of the international SAR plan,
NOTING that the excessive amount of false distress alerts imposes a considerable and unnecessary burden on Rescue Co-ordination Centres (RCCs), may have adverse effects on seafarers’ confidence in the GMDSS, and could also have a potentially serious impact on real distress situations and on safety of life at sea,
BEING AWARE that, if a substantive reduction in the number of false distress alerts now occurring is not achieved in the near future, the quality and efficiency of SAR organisations may be jeopardised,
CONSIDERING that an urgent dissemination of some of the problems which have become evident to providers of rescue services would help to educate people and organisations involved and eventually contribute to a reduction in the number of false distress alerts,
CONSIDERING ALSO that Administrations, manufacturers, educators, users, providers of communications and rescue services, and all others concerned need guidance on ways and means of reducing false distress alerts,
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation made by the Maritime Safety Committee at its sixtyfifth session,
(1) ADOPTS the Guidelines for Avoiding False Distress Alert out in the annex to the present resolution;
(2) URGES Governments to bring these Guidelines to the attention of all concerned.
