Some Safety Aspects of Navigation in Polar Waters (еn)

Abstract

Nowadays, the Arctic zone of Russia is being intensively developed, the cargo turnover of the Northern Sea Route is increasing, oil and gas fields are being developed, fishing and polar tourism are being developed as well. Navigation in polar waters is characterized by many unavoidable adverse factors for the ship crews, such as rotating shift schedule, noise, vibration, electromagnetic fields, etc. Automation of ship navigation, which is aimed at reducing the voyages accident rate, has significantly changed the conditions and nature of work for the seafarers. There appeared to be a problem of discrepancy between functional capabilities of a human operator and requirements of modern sea equipment control systems. The reduction of personnel, the expansion of the functional duties range of crew members leads to significant loads on the whole crew. Frequent and intense disturbances of the geomagnetic field in the Polar regions and the Far North have an adverse effect on the human body functions overall. Crew fatigue becomes one of the main problems of navigation. Irrational light environment can lead to visual fatigue, attention failure, reduced clarity of signals perception, which, in turn, can provoke the accidents. It is highly necessary to develop special organizational and technical measures aimed at optimizing the working conditions of the crew when navigating in polar waters. It is also necessary to develop scientifically based criteria for determining the professional suitability of seafarers based on the results of psychophysiological testing. It is necessary to develop scientifically grounded regimes of work and rest of seafarers.

Keywords

• automation of navigation
• safety
• polar code
• working conditions