The International Maritime Organization (IMO) SOLAS Regulation V/19 – Carriage requirements for shipborne navigational systems and equipment specifies construction, navigation, certification and management requirements for certain vessels:
All cargo ships of 500 GT and above
All ships of 300 gross tonnage (GT) and above engaged on international voyages
All passenger ships with a capacity >12 regardless of size
For simplicity we define this as a Convention vessel.
Some of Starboard's risk indicators pertain to particular IMO registration requirements to build up a better picture of the vessel’s compliance and risk.
In a perfect world, every vessel on AIS is transmitting its identification details correctly, and a match can be made between the AIS transmission and the IMO record, if one exists. In reality, there are two pitfalls:
Miss: Many vessels transmit inaccurate identification details and can not be matched to an IMO record even though one should exist – i.e. their vessel type and travel history indicate that they meet one of the requirements above under SOLAS V/19. These vessels could be missed in a risk assessment framework.
False alarm: On the other hand, not all vessels in the IMO database are subject to the SOLAS V/19 convention; for example pleasure yachts, fishing vessels, military craft, and non-commercial vessels under a certain size and/or operating locally. These vessels could cause false alarms in a risk assessment framework based strictly on certification details in the IMO database.
Approach
To avoid both misses and false alarms in a risk assessment framework, Starboard estimates whether or not each vessel meets the requirements of the IMO SOLAS Convention using vessel characteristics and travel history.
For vessels in the IMO database, exact tonnage and passenger capacity are compared against the Convention vessel criteria outlined above. Whether or not the vessel is engaged on international voyages is determined from the port visit history in Starboard. Note that vessels genuinely on international voyages but without recorded multi-country port calls due to missing data may be excluded.
A similar analysis is done for vessels transmitting AIS that could not be matched to the IMO database, except that instead of using exact tonnage and passenger capacity, we use the self-reported vessel type as a proxy. The mapping is seen in the table below.
Vessel type code | Description | Category |
0 | Not available (default) | Non-Convention vessel |
1-19 | Reserved | Non-Convention vessel |
20-29 | Wing in ground | Convention vessel |
2008 | Tanker - Bunker | Convention vessel |
2012 | Other - Research and survey | Convention vessel |
2013 | Cargo - Fish carrier | Convention vessel |
30 | Fishing | Non-Convention vessel |
31 | Towing | Non-Convention vessel |
32 | Towing 200m+ | Non-Convention vessel |
33 | Dredging | Convention vessel |
34 | Diving ops | Convention vessel |
35 | Military | Non-Convention vessel |
36 | Sailing | Non-Convention vessel |
37 | Pleasure craft | Non-Convention vessel |
38-39 | Reserved | Non-Convention vessel |
40-49 | High speed craft | Convention vessel |
50 | Pilot | Non-Convention vessel |
51 | Search and rescue | Non-Convention vessel |
52 | Tug | Non-Convention vessel |
53 | Port tender | Non-Convention vessel |
54 | Anti-pollution equipment | Convention vessel |
55 | Law enforcement | Non-Convention vessel |
56 | Local vessel | Non-Convention vessel |
57 | Local vessel | Non-Convention vessel |
58 | Medical transport | Convention vessel |
59 | Noncombatant ship | Convention vessel |
60-69 | Passenger | Convention vessel |
70-79 | Cargo | Convention vessel |
80-89 | Tanker | Convention vessel |
90 | Other | Convention vessel |
91-94 | Other - Hazard | Convention vessel |
95-98 | Other - Unknown | Non-Convention vessel |
99 | Other | Convention vessel |