New Zealand Government safety agency Maritime New Zealand informs that the text of all radio navigational warnings for New Zealand’s areas of responsibility is available online for the first time. All warnings will be posted in full on the Land Information New Zealand website, where Notices to Mariners are also found.
Maritime safety information is of vital concern to all ships and pertains to navigational and meteorological warnings, meteorological forecast and other urgent safety-related messages broadcast to ships. There are three types of navigational warnings: long range (NAVAREA), coastal and local.
LINZ has worked with Maritime New Zealand’s Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) and MetService (the METAREA XIV Coordinator) to make this information accessible from the one location.
RCCNZ is responsible for issuing coastal navigational warnings to the NZ Coastal Warning Area Z. LINZ and the MetService are the NAVAREA XIV and METAREA XIV coordinators, respectively, responsible for issuing navigational and meteorological warnings to a large portion of the South-west Pacific and Southern Ocean.
The information available includes:
While this change gives mariners another place to check information when preparing for a voyage, it does not replace the Inmarsat SafetyNET service or radio broadcasts as the official channel for the latest warnings and forecast information.
Online navigation information including warnings and Notices to Mariners is accessible from the LINZ website: http://www.linz.govt.nz/hydro/nautical-info/navigation-area-14