Nautical Information Service - nIS

Nautical Information Service (nIS) is a bilingual free application for smart phones published by Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure held for leaders of yachts and boats, fishermen, divers, swimmers and other people who spend time on the coast and at sea. nIS has been developed that user of applications could give harbormaster’s offices and other safety services of navigation and prevention of marine pollution, especially to search and rescue at sea service, substantial and detailed information in a simple and quick way, but also in order to provide user at any time and at every place readily available information relevant to his own safety at sea and along the coast.

Using nIS application users have always accurate data on sea conditions, contact the nearest emergency public services, as well as ports, anchorages or similar at the precise location where is currently located. nIS is a particularly useful application for those persons who dare to go to sea alone, because with this applications at sea no one is alone. Application nIS allows you to reduce the danger to yourself and others, but also to get immediate help when you really need it.

Application nIS is designed to operate at any time and on any location on the sea.

The application works even when you do not have Internet access because the content of the application loads on the smartphone when you have a access to wireless internet or Wi-Fi network, and is available to you when you don’t have such a connection.

nIS enables so far the highest quality weather forecast for seafarers high resolution (ALADIN) for each hour in the period of 72 hours realized in collaboration with the Meteorological and hydrological Service.

nIS as applications for marine support was developed in cooperation with mobile operators - Croatian Telecom, VIP-net and TELE2, the Meteorological and hydrological Service and the Hydrographic Institute of the Republic of Croatia.

The application is designed for smart phones with the Android system, as well as for iPhone mobile devices, and is made in a bilingual version in Croatian and English.

Among other contacts nIS includes working hours and geographical location of public services, ports, marinas, nautical anchorages, petrol stations, hyperbaric chambers, medical institutions and other for safety at sea essential public and commercial services.

The application will contribute to the safety of human lives and property at sea, and to facilitate availability of public services of safety at sea.

Content of the nIS application:

weather forecast for mariners (air temperature, wind speed and direction, air pressure, waves, clouds)
navigation rules (vessel equipment, order in ports and at sea, avoiding collision at sea, marine environment protection, information for foreign vessels, divers and swimmers, radio service and radio notices, maritime marks)
public services contacts (search and rescue, harbourmaster's offices, hyperbaric chamber, commercial salvage, consulates, health services, emergency services, VTS service, coastal radio stations)
ports and anchorages (marines, nautical anchorages, petrol stations, border crossings)

Each year, at sea and in coastal areas more than 1.100 accidents take place involving domestic and foreign swimmers, divers, boats and yachts leaders, or the passengers and crew of ships while in roughly 400 cases of accidents require the intervention of harbormaster’s offices, Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and other emergency services. Most calls of distress coming from boaters during the summer are due to increased maritime transport vessels intended for leisure, sport and recreation. Grounding, collisions and inability for navigation (the missing fuel, motor failure, steering, problems with sails, rope tangled around the propeller) are the main causes of initiating interventions.
 
Analyses show that the most common causes of accidents at sea are negligence for forecasting warning, sudden storms, insufficient nautical experience and inadequate equipment of boats and yachts. A significant number of accidents occurs during the summer months, in period of most intensive human activities at sea and along the coast, when the Adriatic coast is visited by domestic and foreign tourists while during the winter often any miscalculation can be fatal.

Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure respects the privacy of the nIS application users and all data collected when using application will be used solely for the purpose of the user authentication, analysis and anonymised statistics for non-commercial purposes, respecting the Law on Protection of Personal Data.