Port of Seville: the origin and evolution of navigation buoys The first navigation buoy registered worldwide was a wooden floating barrel moored with a weight, marking the sand banks of the Guadalquivir river to the Port of Seville, the only inland maritime port in Spain. It was published in 13th century, in the oldest navigation […]
Mediterráneo Señales Marítimas In September MSM celebrated 15 years dedicated to the innovation and development of marine aids to navigation, a progress begun in 2006 and which has grown step by step. They joined IALA in 2008. To commemorate the anniversary Secretary General Francis Zachariae was invited to a ceremony at MSM’s HQ in the […]
On the occasion of September’s Heritage Month in South Africa David Gordon,Executive Manager, Lighthouse and Navigational Systems and IALA Councillor, produced an excellent article in Africa Ports & Ships (www.africaports.co.za ) on 22 September and we are privileged to reproduce highlights here with kind permission. TNPA is mandated by the National Ports Act No.12 of […]
Reef VTS Split Between Townsville and Gladstone. Background In June 2014, the Reef VTS Management Group agreed that the Reef VTS operations be split. The agreement recognised that: In comparison to other parts of the World, the present Reef VTS area is too large for a VTSO to maintain a high level of situational awareness […]
People’s Republic of China Maritime Safety Administration The Shanghai North Bund Forum On 3 to 5 November the First Shanghai North Bund Forum was held in the city, a pillar of Shanghai’s international shipping business. Currently Shanghai holds third place in the international shipping centre rankings in the 2021 Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Center Development Index […]
The General Lighthouse Authorities of the United Kingdom and Ireland1 Head of R&D appointment We learn early that the General Lighthouse Authorities of the United Kingdom and Ireland (GLA) have named Dr Alan Grant as the Head of its Research and Development team. He assumed his new role on 1 November. As part of his […]
In September the Secretary General sent a message of congratulation and goodwill to Vicealmirante José Joaquín Amézquita García, Director General Marítimo, es la Autoridad Maritima Colombiana, the General Maritime Directorate, DIMAR, of Colombia. The occasion was the 69th anniversary of the establishment of DIMAR, a unique achievement, and one in which IALA was proud to […]
I am pleased to report that Virtual Committee meetings in the second half of the year were held from 16 September to 2 November taking account of a broad range of time zones. Our Committees: VTS 51, ENG 14, ENAV 28 and ARM 14 saw a total of 481 participants take part from 37 […]
MSM (Mediterráneo Señales Marítimas) 15th anniversary event IALA Industrial Member MSM has achieved major milestones over the past fifteen years and the company’s team will be celebrating this anniversary in a grand event full of surprises as they look back on years dedicated to innovation and development of marine aids to navigation. Founded in 2006 […]
France Courdouan Lighthouse On 24 July five sites in the Arab and Europe regions were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. One such was the Lighthouse of Cordouan at the mouth of the River Gironde on France’s Atlantic coast. Cordouan Lighthouse rises up on a shallow rocky plateau in a highly exposed and hostile environment. […]
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), such as GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou, etc., are universally used for maritime navigation. However, GNSS have well known vulnerabilities, including jamming, that can interrupt positioning service. For this reason, and others, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in its e-Navigation Strategy and Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) recognizes that resilient positioning is […]
It cannot be denied that 2020 was a year characterized by changes, adaptations and reconsiderations of certain life and working scheme which seemed already established. However, once again, reality gave us another lesson, that of adapting to change. Undoubtedly, during last year, most of us learned a lot, not only individually but also in other […]
We were sorry to learn of the death on 14 August of Mme Christiane Ville, former head of administration at IALA. This was sad news for she was instrumental in the success of IALA over the many years she was part of the organisation, from its origins in 1957 to her retirement in 1991. Even […]
It is with great sadness that we report the death of Christiane Ville, IALA Honorary Member, on 14 August at the age of 89. She was only 19 when she joined the French Lighthouse Service to support the preparatory work for the 1950 International Lighthouse Conference. Five years later she was actively involved in the […]
The rapid development of autonomous technologies has led to the planning or completion of numerous projects, studies and tests of maritime autonomous surface ships (otherwise known as MASS) around the world. Several autonomous vessels are already operating at sea and IMO initiated during the Maritime Safety Committee, MSC 103, in May 2021 the regulatory scope […]
The workshop under the chairmanship of Commander Hideki Noguchi (Japan Coast Guard) was well attended with 109 participants from 29 countries. Participants considered 12 presentations and the results of the two working groups. It was recognised that there are already some non-SOLAS ships (up to 300 tonnes less than 24 metres loa) such as survey […]
Since January this year diplomatic representatives of a growing number of States have signed the Convention in Paris and we anticipate many other States will follow as signatories. In order to enter into force worldwide the Convention requires 30 instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession. On 21 April 2021, a diplomatic note was sent […]
As with past years World Marine Aids to Navigation Day was celebrated by the organisation and its Members around the world and it was a pleasure to see the IALA family spirit in action. In 2018 the General Assembly of IALA established World Marine Aids to Navigation Day to be commemorated on 1 July each […]
Dear IALA Industry Colleagues, We are proud to announce that SPX Corporation has recently acquired Sealite Pty Ltd and affiliated businesses Avlite Systems and Star2M. These businesses have now become a key operating business unit in the SPX Aids to Navigation platform, alongside Sabik Marine. Both Sabik and Sealite have a deep history of product […]
As I write preparations are being made around the world by our international membership to celebrate the World Marine Aids to Navigation Day (WAtoN Day) which falls on 1 July and marks the day IALA was created in 1957. On that day I will be speaking during the webinar organized for the eventa following the […]
