Vessel Traffic Services projected as Oceanic VTS beyond the Territorial Sea

The study of the evolution of Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) reveals that there are new challenges to face, in light of the fact that they are not only currently part of the dynamics of commercial ports but also of the control and surveillance of other maritime areas. New technologies, as well as growing concern for protecting the oceans, generate legislation, surveillance systems and maritime traffic organization accordingly. From their inception to the present, the scope has been increasing, and, to facilitate this dimension, new regulations and supporting technology have been required. Whilst, 77 years ago, port control was through visualization equipment of maritime traffic through the radar (Radio Detection and Ranging) screen and voice communication through Very High Frequency (VHF) radio communications, without the protection of any international regulation, currently the surveillance area extends through the territorial sea and utilises digital and satellite technology. The applicability of VTS has become increasingly widespread in coastal areas throughout the world. By focusing, on the one hand, on recent regulations, both national and international, and, on the other hand, on modern technologies that use satellites, a new dimension of VTS is recognised, with powers projected beyond the territorial sea. A further step towards the recognition of the VTS that will monitor the world's oceans. The purpose of this study is, consequently, to analyse the evolution of VTS from its origins to the present, with consideration of its future. A correlation can be established over time between the equipment and technology used, the services provided and the scope area, in parallel with the study of the corresponding legislation. The evolution of these three factors, equipment-services-and scope area, allows testing of a process: How shore services interact with maritime traffic in waters beyond national jurisdiction of coastal states. The study focuses on assimilating the regulations created by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) since VTS were inaugurated from 1948 to the current time, as a maritime traffic surveillance system and determining what influence they exert on the VTS area and the services provided. To this end, the analysis begins with the national regulations of 2023, the publication of Royal Decree 186/2023 which approves the Regulations for the Management of Maritime Navigation and continues with the study of the new routeing measures and ship reporting systems in northern Europe by the IMO, through the Navigation, Communications and Search and Rescue (NCSR) 11/3 of 2024. In addition, a record of new trends in ocean protection will be included. A further aim is to determine the range of equipment and emerging technology that the VTS will use, illustrating the progress. While once the telephone and computers were part of the VTS operator console, a significant change came with the Automatic Identification System (AIS) equipment. The application of the AIS system has been increasing since 1998 in usage in all type of vessels and other AtoNs causing signal errors therefore, the study on whether VHF data exchange system (VDES) is an emerging solution. The recent national regulation indicates that the royal decree is a document that simplifies the bureaucratic burden by introducing a simplified system called “despacho”. However, beyond this administrative improvement, the central focus of the study is in relation to the use of Spanish maritime spaces outside the territorial sea as a place of anchorage by chemical and gas product tankers, or other vessels carrying substances potentially polluting the marine environment and not bound for any port or terminal located in Spain, as set out in Articles 44 and 45, within Chapter VIII of the Royal Decree 186/2023. This manoeuvre involves direct and periodical contact between ships and the Resue Coordination Centre as VTS. At the international level, the 12th session of the NCSR agreed new measures regarding the participation of ships in a VTS area outside of Dutch territorial waters, applied as a result of the record of accidents involving container ships to prevent container loss and aiming at reducing the risk of maritime accidents in strong wind conditions. New areas are being established beyond the territorial sea, which require control and surveillance. These are included in the new Ocean Treaty agreement under the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), in Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSA) designated worldwide and in Areas To Be Avoided (ATBA) adopted by the IMO. The technology that allows for a greater and more stable range of communication is the VDES, a radiocommunication system capable of exchanging digital data between ships, ships and shore services, with higher data transmission rates than AIS. IMO is working on integrating VDES into SOLAS. The results of this study conclude that it is possible to detect a trend whose new approach will be necessary for future greater magnitude concept of VTS, defined as Oceanic VTS (Uyà, 2022). This is a VTS with global reach, which will incorporate satellite technologies that will allow communications and surveillance on a planetary scale. The new regulations officially and legally link operations that certain vessels can operate beyond the territorial sea, with shore stations in which the VTS are included. These new standards recognize, first, that VTS perform functions outside of 12 miles; secondly, that they have the technology to do it; and, finally, that its functions have expanded in the field of surveillance towards international waters. All these issues provide a framework to operate VTS globally. Emerging technology points towards VDES and surveillance of protected waters on the high seas, a need supported only by satellite systems. Regulatory and technological instruments are dynamic concepts whose analysis allows the determination of trends and prepares the maritime industry to face challenges that are already on the horizon.