The drone used by the team of the Maritime Safety and Port Management Authority of Montenegro (UPSUL) to monitor and control maritime traffic in Boka had an incident because the low-flying remote-controlled aircraft was "picked up" by one of the yachts sailing through the Verige Strait.
"Vijesti" has unofficially learned that the drone, which was controlled by an operator from one of the UPSUL vessels present here, "got bogged down" and remained stationary hovering at a low altitude.
The crew of the sailboat-catamaran sailing from the direction of Tivat towards Veriga did not notice the drone in time and, by a play of unfortunate circumstances, "picked up" the low-flying aircraft with the mast, which, in the process, became entangled in part of the cables on the bow of the sailboat.
The drone was soon removed from the mast, and UPSUL announced that the aircraft suffered minor damage in the incident - a broken camera mount and a pair of propellers. UPSUL already has most of it available as spare parts, so the drone will soon be back in operation.
In addition to this, UPSUL has another drone at its disposal.
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs announced yesterday that it will also control navigation from the air in order to "see the true situation and spot criminals in the Bay of Kotor".
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Until recently, the unified Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs did not accept the initiative of navigation safety inspectors and people from UPSUL that all vessels registered for commercial purposes - passenger transport, regardless of their size, must have Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders installed, and who constantly send information about the location, identity and take care of the movements of the vessel.
Such an obligation to install AIS has already been implemented on fishing vessels precisely for the purpose of increased control of where commercial fishermen are, what they are doing and how they behave at sea, but the Ministry did not understand the opinion of the profession that AIS must be mandatory for all registered vessels. for commercial purposes - transportation of passengers.
It is these vessels, primarily fast "taxi boat" speedboats, of which there are more than 200 in Boka, that cause the biggest problems with fast and careless driving that violates both the maximum permitted sailing speed and other rules of safe sailing at sea, and the inspectors do not have the adequate technical ability to record and sanction.
If AIS transponders were installed on those vessels, the operators of the UPSUL Maritime Operations Center, who are connected with the inspection and the maritime police, would immediately know which vessel, where and when it violates the regulations, so sanctioning the perpetrators and establishing order at sea would be much simpler and more efficiently.
In addition, UPSUL has the additional problem that due to the opposition of some members of the Police Administration, i.e. the official positions of the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property, that institution has been prevented for more than a year from fully realizing its project of improving the system for electronic monitoring and management of navigation (VTMIS). in the Bay of Boka Kotorska, because it is unable to set up new senior stations that would have full control over the water area of the bay through AIS transponders, radars and high-resolution video cameras.
Sensor stations are planned to be installed on Cape Kobila, Portonovo, Turkski Rt in Veriga and Dražin Vrt in the Bay of Kotorska, but police officers from the border crossing Kobila do not want UPSUL equipment to be installed near the facility where they work because they are afraid of electromagnetic radiation. , while the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Assets, allegedly due to the bad impact on the cultural landscape of Boka, is questioning the installation of stations on Turkski Rt and Dražina Vrt near Orahovac.
Until recently, the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, i.e. the current Ministry of Maritime Affairs under whose jurisdiction is UPSUL, i.e. the entire system of organization and safety of navigation in the country, have not yet done anything to finally realize the project of improving the VTMIS system in Boka and in that way to improve the monitoring and enforcement of order at sea.
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