The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention, Chapter V Reg. 19-1 requires that vessels governed by this Convention engaged on international voyages shall be fitted with a system to automatically transmit:
- The identity of the ship;
- The position of the ship (Latitude and Longitude);
- The date and time of the position provided
The regulation applies to the following types of ships:
- Passenger ships, including high-speed passenger craft;
- Cargo ships, including high-speed craft of 300 gross tonnage and upwards; and
- Mobile offshore drilling units
These types of ships are normally tracked every six hours through Jamaica’s National Data Centre hosted by its Recognized Application Service Provider. The tracking is of no charge to the ship.
All Jamaican registered ships that are affected by this regulation (19-1) must adhere to its requirements. The Jamaica Ship Registry provides all the relevant information during the registration process for a convention vessel to obtain a LRIT Conformance Test Report and to be activated on Jamaica’s National Data Centre.