The Vessel Traffic Service (VTS), which helps to control maritime traffic, completed its first anniversary of operations in Açu Port this December. The port complex is the only one in Brazil with the system, which provides important information on vessels arriving at the port’s monitoring area, such as location, speed, size, draught, cargo type and flag.
As it completed its first year in operation, the VTS went through a technical inspection by Nautical Signaling Center Admiral Moraes Rego (CAMR), an organization subordinated to the Directorate of Hydrography and Navigation (DHN). The goal of the visit was to verify that the initial parameters of homologation and development of the VTS were maintained throughout these 12 months of operations. According to Valter Barbosa, Açu Port’s VTS Center Controller, the control service is one of the enterprise’s advantages. “The VTS made port activities, as well as navigation security as a whole, even more efficient in Açu. Our operators go above and beyond to meet the requests of mariners and provide service focused on client needs. Given that the port complex is experiencing significant growth in the quality and complexity of maneuvers executed in its terminals, this type of tool is essential,” he said.
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One key factor of the VTS is integration of information across many systems, such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS), the Radar, communication systems, and gauges of waves, tides, wind, as well as monitoring cameras. Since the VTS was implemented, nine associates were trained by Homem do Mar Foundation (FHM) and became the first VTS operators in Brazil.
