Marine Notice 12/2014
Recovery of persons from the Water
Purpose Guidance
The purpose of this Marine Notice is to provide advice to IMO has developed the following circulars which contain
ship owners and ship operators on new SOLAS guidance to assist owners and operators to meet the
regulation III/17-1 adopted by the International Maritime requirements of SOLAS regulation III/17-1:
Organization (IMO) resolution MSC.338(91) which • MSC.1/Circ.1447 – Guidelines for the
requires all ships to have plans and procedures for Development of Plans and Procedures for
recovery of persons from the water. The new SOLAS
Recovery of Persons from the Water
regulation came into force internationally on 1 July 2014.
• MSC.1/Circ.1182 – Guide to Recovery Techniques
The regulation applies to new ships constructed on or • MSC.1/Circ.1185/Rev.1. – Guide for Cold Water
after 1 July 2014 and to existing ships by the first Survival
periodical or renewal safety equipment survey or
certificate of survey, as applicable after 1 July 2014, Equipment intended to be used for recovery operations
(whichever comes first). will need to be identified in the plans and procedures
developed through a risk assessment, taking into
Background consideration anticipated conditions and ship-specific
In many incidents involving ships in distress with persons characteristics.
in the water, responding ships have often endangered the The guidance recommends that drills be carried out to
lives of their own crew to rescue persons from the water. ensure that crew are familiar with the plans, procedures
In the absence of any specific plans and procedures to and equipment for recovery of persons from the water, as
recover persons from the water, the safety of the part of the routine man-overboard drills.
recovering ship’s crew can be compromised. Better
preparation for recovering persons from the water will Owners and operators of new and existing ships should
enable ships to have a greater chance to save lives at bring this information to the attention of their designers,
sea when dedicated search and rescue resources are not shipyards, surveyors and other relevant persons, to
available. SOLAS regulation III/17-1 is the outcome of assist in preparing for when the SOLAS regulation is
IMO’s work that addresses this important matter. given effect by Marine Order 25.
IMO agreed it will be beneficial if ships to which chapter III Copies of the relevant IMO documents are available on
of SOLAS does not apply to also have plans and the IMO website or from AMSA.
procedures as adopted by resolution MSC.346 (91) for http://www.imo.org/knowledgecentre/indexofimoresolut
emergency situations where recovery of persons from the ions/Pages/Default.aspx
water is required. The resolution lists categories of http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Circulars/Pages/IMODOCS.
vessels for which SOLAS contracting Governments are aspx
requested to determine to what extent the requirements
of regulation III/17-1 should apply.
Brad Groves
Australian position A/G Deputy Chief Executive Officer
AMSA intends to give effect to SOLAS regulation III/17-1 08 August 2014
through Marine Order 25 (Equipment – lifesaving), which
is currently under review. Australian Maritime Safety Authority
GPO Box 2181
SOLAS regulation III/17-1 will be applied to all regulated CANBERRA ACT 2601
Australian vessels and foreign vessels to which Chapter
III of SOLAS applies.
File No 2014/2187
Internet address for all current Marine Notices: www.amsa.gov.au Page 1 of 1
