Vessel Tracking

Government Notice 65 of 2005

Does the law/regulation require or exempt fishing vessels to keep VMS turned on, or is there no provision?

  • Article 2

    (1) Subject to subregulation (5) and regulation 7(2), any vessel licensed in terms of section 40(1) of the Act, whose master has been instructed in terms of subregulation (3) must have an ALC installed on that vessel which is registered in accordance with the provisions of these regulations. (2) From the date on which the duty referred to in subregulation (1) arises, the master of the vessel concerned that - (a) does not have an ALC installed and registered in accordance with the provisions of these regulations; (b) subject to regulation 4, operates with an ALC that does not function in accordance with any requirements determined in terms of these regulations; (c) operates with an ALC that has been tampered with; (d) operates while the master does not comply with regulation 4, is guilty of an offense and liable to the penalty mentioned in section 52(4) of the Act. (3) The Minister may in writing instruct the master of any vessel licensed in terms of section 40(1) of the Act, to install an ALC on that vessel before the date referred to in subregulation (4). (4) The date on which the ALC must be installed is - (a) one month from the date on which the instruction is handed to the master concerned; (b) if the instruction is sent by post, from the date on which such instruction would have been received by the master in the ordinary course of post. (5) The Minister may on application grant an exemption in respect of any vessel from complying with these regulations subject to such conditions as he or she may think fit.

  • Article 3

    (1) An ALC is an electronic system that transmits such information relating to the position and activities of the vessel concerned as the Permanent Secretary may determine, so that such information can be received at the Fisheries Monitoring Centre. (2) An ALC must comply with such technical requirements as the Permanent Secretary may determine. (3) The requirements referred to in subregulation (2) may relate to - (a) the frequency on which the ALC must transmit; (b) the manner in which the data must be modulated on the frequency concerned; (c) the duty to transmit the data through a specific third party, which may use any system of further relaying the signal, including the use of a satellite as may be determined by the Permanent Secretary; (d) the format of the data that must be transmitted by the ALC; (e) the encoding, encryption, transformation or addition of checksums that must be applied or added to the data in order to ensure the accuracy, validity and integrity of the transmitted data; (f) the sealing of the ALC or any other measures that must be taken in order to prevent tampering with the ALC, or to ensure that if the ALC has been tampered with, such tampering can be detected. (4) The Permanent Secretary may approve a specific make or model of ALC and may require that every ALC functions identically to that make and model. (5) A request to register the ALC to be used on a specific vessel must be addressed to the Permanent Secretary by completing a form that conforms as closely as possible to Annexure A. (6) If the ALC complies with the requirements determined by the Permanent Secretary, he or she must register it and must issue a certificate that conforms as closely as possible to Annexure B. (7) Despite subregulation (2) and (3), the ALC fitted on the vessel, to which these regulations apply, must enable the vessel to continuously collect and transmit, at any time, to the Fisheries Monitoring Centre the following data: (a) the vessel’s identification; (b) the most recent geographical position of the vessel which is the longitude and the latitude with a margin of error lower than 500 meters with a confidence interval of 99 percent; and (c) the date and time that the position of vessel, contemplated to in paragraph (b), is notified.