Nautical Information Service - nIS

Nautical Information Service (nIS) is a multilingual 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 time required for the reaction of the safety services of navigation with accidents or other emergencies at sea is significantly reduced, it is easier to identify the perpetrators of maritime violations, and 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. For communication with the search and rescue service at sea, nIS uses short text message (SMS) and phone call to the toll-free number 195 witch is available for all mobile operators almost at every part of the territory.

nIS enables dialing a phone number for reporting distress, urgency or safety 195 MRCC Rijeka with automatic delivery of location of the caller via short text message (SMS) which essentially reduces the time of search for injured persons, 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, the possibility of reporting maritime violations or other emergency at sea events with text, photography, short movie and location of event.

nIS as applications for marine support and alerting emergency services 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 multilingual version in Croatian, Slovenian, English, German, Italian, French, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Hungarian, Spanish and Russian.

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:

phone call to the toll-free number 195 of search and rescue service with information on current location
maritime violation report (with an option to attach photo or video)
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. During the 2015, at 33 cases of fatalities in 11 cases it was the divers, in 12 cases negligence when speed sailing or extreme water sports, while 4 was injured swimmers and 6 people with health problems. 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.