[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 26 (Tuesday, February 9, 1999)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 6253-6255]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-2620]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
47 CFR Part 80
[FCC 98-296]
Waiver of GMDSS Rules for Small Passenger Vessels and Fishing
Vessels
AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION: Partial waiver of rules.
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SUMMARY: On November 20, 1998, the Commission issued an Order waiving
certain of its Rules implementing the Global Maritime Distress and
Safety System (GMDSS) as applied to fishing vessels until it can
conclude a rule making proceeding to determine what GMDSS equipment is
appropriate for fishing vessels. In the same order, the Commission
waived certain of its Rules implementing the GMDSS as applied to small
passenger vessels until the United States Coast Guard has notified the
Commission that Sea Areas A1 and A2 have been established.
DATES: Waiver is effective Feburary 1, 1999.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael J. Wilhelm, or Jim Shaffer,
Public Safety and Private Wireless Division, Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, 2025 M
Street, NW, Washington, DC 20554 or by telephone at (202) 418-0680 or
by e-mail to, respectively, mwilhelm@fcc.gov or jshaffer@fcc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission's Order
released November 20, 1998.
I. Introduction and Executive Summary
1. By this Order we grant temporary, conditional waivers pursuant
to Part II of Title III of the Communications Act of certain Commission
rules implementing the provisions of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)
Convention for small passenger vessels and fishing vessels.1
The waivers affect fishing vessels 2 and small passenger
vessels that make short voyages in certain narrowly-defined waters.
Absent the action taken herein, fishing vessels and small passenger
vessels would be required to fully implement the Global Maritime
Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) on February 1, 1999.3 We
are granting the waiver for small passenger vessels inter alia because
the short-based stations necessary for GMDSS short-range and medium-
range digital selective calling (DSC) communications are not yet fully
implemented in the United States. Consequently, were small passenger
vessels required to fully conform to the GMDSS rules, those vessels
would have to install the equipment necessary for long-range
communication. The long-range equipment would be costly and unnecessary
from a safety standpoint for small passenger vessels. In the case of
fishing vessels, at the behest of representatives of the fishing
industry, we are granting a temporary, conditional waiver from
compliance with certain of the Commission's GMDSS rules pending
completion of a rule making proceeding addressed to the issue of
whether fishing vessels should be required to comply fully with the
Commission's GMDSS rules. The waivers herein affect only rules that
were to take effect on February 1, 1999. As a result, nothing herein
should be construed as a waiver of GMDSS rules which already are in
effect.
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\1\ See Consolidated Text of the International Convention for
the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, and its Protocol of 1978: Articles,
Annexes and Certificates, Incorporating all Amendments in Effect
from 1 July 1997, International Maritime Organization, London, 1997
(SOLAS Convention).
\2\ ``Fishing vessels'' for the purposes of this Order are
commercial vessels that catch and/or process fish and other marine
life. C.f. SOLAS Convention, Part A, Regulation 2(i).
\3\ See 47 CFR Subpart W.
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II. Background
2. GMDSS Implementation. In the GMDSS R&O,4 the
Commission established a schedule, consistent with the one adopted
internationally, under which the GMDSS would be phased-in for United
States vessels. The current GMDSS rules require that all United States
compulsory vessels 5 must be equipped with a full GMDSS
installation for alerting and communications purposes by February 1,
1999.6 The Commission's GMDSS rules require all compulsory
vessels to carry a complement of basic GMDSS equipment which includes a
VHF installation with digital selective calling (DSC), a NAVTEX
receiver, a float-free satellite EPIRB, one or more search and rescue
radar transponders (SARTs), and two or more VHF portable radios. In
addition, these vessels must carry certain other communications
equipment depending on the ``Sea Area'' in which a vessel
operates.7 There are four possible Sea Areas (designated Sea
Areas A1-A4).8 Sea Areas A3 and
[[Page 6254]]
A4 are currently established and in use world-wide and rely, for their
operation, on ship borne DSC-equipped high frequency (HF) transceivers
or INMARSAT satellite terminals. In the United States, Sea Areas A1 and
A2 are not established because the requisite shore-based VHF and MF DSC
equipment is not in place. Accordingly, absent a waiver, compulsory
ships in United States waters must be fitted with Sea Area A3 or A4
equipment in order to participate in the ship-to-shore and shore-to-
ship portion of the GMDSS. The Sea Area A3 and A4 equipment, intended
for long ocean-going voyages, is significantly more expensive than the
Sea Area A1 and A2 equipment.
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\4\ See Amendment of Parts 13 and 80 of the Commission's Rules
to Implement the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System to
Improve the Safety of Life at Sea, PR Docket No. 90-480, Report and
Order, 7 FCC Rcd 951 (1992) (GMDSS R&O), petition for
reconsideration denied, Memorandum Opinion and Order, FCC 98-180
(released August 10, 1998), 63 FR 49870 (September 18, 1998).
\5\ Compulsory vessels are cargo ships of 300 gross tons or over
travelling in the open sea, and all passenger ships, irrespective of
size, that carry more than 12 passengers when travelling in the open
sea. See 47 CFR 80.1065(b).
\6\ See 47 CFR 80.1065.
\7\ See 47 CFR 80.1089--80.1093.
\8\ The GMDSS Sea Areas are defined as follows: Sea Area A1--an
area within the radiotelephone coverage of at least one VHF coast
station in which continuous DSC alerting is available (this would
normally extend approximately 20-30 miles from shore); Sea Area A2--
an area, excluding Sea Area A1, within the radiotelephone coverage
of at least one MF coast station in which continuous DSC alerting is
available (this would normally extend up to 75-150 miles from
shore); Sea Area A3--an area, excluding Sea Areas A1 and A2, within
the coverage of an INMARSAT geostationary satellite in which
continuous alerting is available (the area between 70 deg. North
Latitude and 70 deg. South Latitude, which is within the footprint
of the INMARSAT system); Sea Area A4--an area outside Sea Areas A1,
A2, and A3 (essentially the polar regions). See 47 CFR 80.1069.
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III. Discussion
3. Permitting small passenger vessels to defer GMDSS compliance
until Sea Areas A1 and A2 are established serves the public interest by
avoiding the need for short-range vessels to unnecessarily purchase and
install the equipment appropriate for long-range communication. The
public interest is likewise served by not finalizing the GMDSS
equipment requirements for fishing vessels until the Commission has had
the opportunity to consider, in a rule making context, whether there
are characteristics of fishing vessels that dictate making special
provisions for fishing vessels in the GMDSS rules.
4. The general exemption rule for small passenger vessels,
Sec. 80.933 of the Commission's Rules, provides that, prior to February
1, 1999, certain small passenger vessels are exempt from: (a) the
radiotelegraph carriage requirements of the Communications Act; (b) the
MF radiotelephone requirements of the Commission's Rules; and (c)
Regulations 7 through 11 of Chapter IV of the SOLAS
Convention.9 The general exemption,
Sec. 80.933(c),10 is narrowly drawn in geographic terms
11 and applies only to United States small passenger vessels
that operate not more than 20 nautical miles from land, or
alternatively, 200 nautical miles between consecutive ports. The
current exemption expires on January 31, 1999 because, effective
February 1, 1999, the Commission's GMDSS rules, only portions of which
are currently in effect, would be fully implemented for all compulsory
vessels.12
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\9\ Regulations 7 through 11 of Chapter IV of the SOLAS
Convention define the basic radio equipment required for GMDSS-
compliant ships and the additional equipment required for operation
in Sea Areas A1-A4.
\10\ 47 U.S.C. 80.933(c).
\11\ See 47 CFR 80.933(c)(4)(i)-(iii), (d)(1)-(3).
\12\ See 47 CFR 80.1065(b)(3),(4). Note, however, that in the
instant Order, the provisions of certain GMDSS rules as they apply
to fishing vessels also are waived. See para. infra.
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5. We note that the expiration date set for the small passenger
vessel exemption in Sec. 80.933 of the Commission's Rules was premised
on the shore-based terrestrial portions of the GMDSS being in place by
February 1, 1999.13 Accordingly, it was anticipated that on
February 1, 1999, small passenger vessels would be fully in compliance
with the GMDSS rules if they were fitted with VHF-DSC and/or MF-DSC
equipment in addition to the GMDSS equipment already required. However,
because Sea Areas A1 and A2 have not been established, small passenger
vessels would require Sea Area A3 or A4 equipment to comply with the
GMDSS rules unless the small passenger vessel exemption supra is
extended pending establishment of Sea Areas A1 and A2 in the United
States.
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\13\ Amendment of Parts 13 and 80 of the Commission's Rules to
Implement the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) to
Improve the Safety of Life at Sea, PR Docket No. 90-480, Notice of
Proposed Rule Making, 5 FCC Rcd 6212, 6214 (1990).
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6. We do not believe it would further the public interest to
require small passenger vessels to be fitted with costly equipment that
would be of little or no utility once Sea Areas A1 and A2 are
established. Given the route and conditions of the voyages routinely
made by these small passenger vessels, we find that it is reasonable to
grant these small passenger vessels a temporary, conditional waiver of
certain of the Commission's GMDSS rules by extending the termination
date of the general exemption supra. Thereby we exempt these small
passenger vessels both from the carriage of radiotelegraph equipment
and certain equipment specified in the Commission's GMDSS rules,
provided that these vessels carry the equipment specified in the
general exemption rule, Sec. 80.933. In so doing, we are substituting
the equipment specified in Sec. 80.933 of the Commission's Rules for
that specified in Regulations 7 through 11 of Chapter IV of the SOLAS
Convention, pursuant to Regulation 5 of Chapter I of the SOLAS
Convention which permits substitution of equivalent equipment when such
equipment will be at least as effective as that specified in the SOLAS
Convention.14 The small passenger vessel waiver will be
terminated by the Commission once the Coast Guard has notified the
Commission that shore-based Sea Area A1 and A2 coverage is established,
at which time, small passenger vessels will be required to fully comply
with the Commission's GMDSS rules.15
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\14\ See Amendment of Part 80 of the Commission's Rules
Concerning the General Exemption for Large Cargo Oceangoing Cargo
Vessels and Small Passenger Vessels, WT Docket No. 93-133, Report
and Order, FCC 95-447 (released Nov. 8, 1995) at para. 22, 60 FR
58243 (November 27, 1995).
\15\ The Commission intends to provide at least six months
notice before terminating the waiver of certain of the GMDSS rules
as they apply to small passenger vessels.
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7. Fishing Vessels. Traditionally, fishing vessels have been
treated as cargo vessels for the purposes of the Commission's Rules.
They are considered cargo vessels because the Communications Act
defines ``cargo ship'' as ``any ship not a passenger ship.''
16 Accordingly, fishing vessels have been required to carry
the radiotelegraph and radiotelephone equipment, including GMDSS
equipment, specified for cargo ships in the Communications Act and in
the Commission's Rules.17 As a result, since August 1, 1993,
fishing vessels of 300 gross tons or more have been required to carry a
NAVTEX receiver for the reception of maritime safety information and a
float-free satellite EPIRB,18 and, since February 1, 1995,
such ships have been required to carry specified survival craft radio
equipment.19 Thus, to date, fishing vessels of 300 gross
tons or more have been subject to the Commission's GMDSS
rules.20
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\16\ 47 U.S.C. Sec. 153(39)(C).
\17\ See 47 U.S.C. 351-363; 47 CFR 80.801-80.879, 80.951-
80.1135.
\18\ All compulsory ships were required to comply with 47 CFR
80.1085(a)(4) and 80.1085(a)(6) by August 1, 1993, and with 47 CFR
80.1095 by February 1, 1995. See 47 CFR 80.1065(b)(1),
80.1065(b)(2).
\19\ See 47 CFR 80.1065(2), 80.1095.
\20\ See 47 CFR 80.1065(b).
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8. Representatives of the fishing industry 21 have
claimed to the
[[Page 6255]]
Commission 22 and to members of Congress 23 that
requiring fishing vessels to comply with the DSC communications
requirements of the GMDSS rules by February 1, 1999, would constitute
an unnecessary financial burden.24 In this connection, they
argue that, because of the lack of shore coverage to support Sea Areas
A1 and A2, fishing vessels would be required to carry more expensive
Sea Area A3 or A4 equipment.25 Moreover, they urge that the
Commission revisit its GMDSS rules, as they apply to fishing vessels,
because the SOLAS Convention specifically exempts fishing vessels from
the SOLAS GMDSS regulations.26 Further, they contend that,
if the GMDSS is implemented on compulsory vessels--which then
discontinue standing watch on the current distress channels (VHF
Channel 16 and MF frequency 2182 kHz)--smaller vessels, lacking DSC
capability, will have difficulty contacting the GMDSS-equipped vessels
in the event of an emergency.27 In order to more fully
examine these issues, we believe it best to issue a temporary,
conditional waiver of certain of the Commission's GMDSS rules
applicable to fishing vessels until we conclude a rule making
proceeding addressing the concerns of the fishing industry and such
other parties who may elect to participate. Accordingly, by this Order,
we grant a temporary, conditional waiver, until a date to be announced
in the future, of the requirement that fishing vessels comply with
certain provisions of Part 80, Subpart W of the Commission's Rules
requiring installation and use of GMDSS equipment. This waiver is
conditioned on the requirement that, during the duration of the waiver,
fishing vessels of 300 gross tons or greater shall continue to comply
with Commission GMDSS rules currently in effect, namely
Secs. 80.1085(a)(4) (NAVTEX receiver), 80.1085(a)(6) (EPIRB) and
80.1095 (survival craft equipment) of the Commission's Rules. Moreover,
this waiver does not relieve fishing vessels from compliance with the
provisions of Subparts Q and R of Part 80 of the Commission's Rules.
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\21\ See Letter dated September 1, 1998, from Fishing Industry
Task Force on GMDSS/DSC (Messrs. Thorn Smith, et al.) to William E.
Kennard, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission; Letter dated
April 21, 1998, to the Hon. Ted Stevens from the Kodiak Vessel
Owners' Association, Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, United Catcher
Boats, Deep Sea Fishermen's Union, Aleutians East Borough, Alaska
Longline Fish Association, Unisea, Inc., Tyson Seafood Group, Inc,
NorQuest Seafoods, Inc. Petersburg Vessel Owners, Pacific Seafood
Processing Association, United Fishermen's Marketing Association,
Inc., Alaska Draggers Association, North Pacific Longline
Association, Fishing Vessel Owners' Association, Alaska Crab
Coalition, At-Sea Processors Association, and Groundfish Forum
(Stevens Letter); Letter dated April 20, 1998, to the Hon. Slade
Gorton from the North Pacific Fishing Vessel Owners' Association,
Yardarm Knot, Inc. and Snopac Products, Inc. (Gorton Letter).
\22\ See Letter dated July 15, 1998, from the Hon. Frank
Murkowski to William E. Kennard, Chairman, Federal Communications
Commission.
\23\ Id. See also Amendment to the Department of Commerce,
Justice and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies Appropriations
Act of 1999, remarks of the Hon. Frank Murkowski, 144 Cong. Rec.
S8854.
\24\ See Stevens Letter at 1.
\25\ Id.
\26\ See SOLAS Convention, Chapter I, Regulation 3 (a)(vi).
\27\ See Gorton Letter at 1, 2.
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9. Ship Radio Certificates. Without the relief afforded in this
Order, the ship radio certificates for small passenger ships on short
voyages and fishing vessels would have expired on February 1, 1999,
unless GMDSS systems had been installed on those vessels. However, with
the relief afforded herein, those radio certificates will remain valid
until the expiration dates contained thereon or the expiration of any
renewal terms thereof; provided, however, that such ship radio
certificates shall expire with respect to a vessel on the date the
Commission terminates the waiver granted hereby with respect to such
vessel. Moreover, Commission-authorized inspectors will renew ship
radio certificates, or issue new ship radio certificates, to small
passenger ships and fishing vessels that lack GMDSS installations,
provided those vessels meet the conditions imposed herein and otherwise
comply with the Commission's Rules.
IV. Ordering Clauses
10. It is ordered that, pursuant to the authority contained in
sections 4(i) and 303(r) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended,
47 U.S.C. 154(i) and 303(r), that Subpart W of Part 80 of the
Commission's rules is temporarily waived as it applies to small
passenger vessels on the short voyages defined in Sec. 80.933 of the
Commission's Rules,28 Provided that such vessels comply with
the provisions of Sec. 80.933 of the Commission's Rules,
notwithstanding the expiration dates therein. It is further ordered
that authority is delegated to the Chief of the Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau to terminate said temporary, conditional
waiver as it applies to small passenger vessels at such time as the
Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau deems appropriate after
the Coast Guard has notified the Commission that shore-based Sea Area
A1 and A2 coverage is established but no sooner than six months
following the establishment of shore-based coverage for Sea Areas A1
and A2.
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\28\ 47 CFR 80.933.
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It is further ordered that Subpart W of Part 80 of the Commission's
Rules is temporarily and partially waived as it applies to fishing
vessels, as discussed herein 29 Provided that fishing
vessels shall abide by the provisions of Secs. 80.1085(a)(4),
80.1085(a)(6) and 80.1095 of the Commission's Rules.30
\29\ See n. supra.
\30\ 47 CFR 80.1085(a)(4), 80.1085(a)(6) and 80.1095.
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Federal Communications Commission.
Magalie Roman Salas,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 99-2620 Filed 2-8-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P
