What is VTS and why does it matter?

Every vessel calling at a Polish port first encounters the same service: VTS. Vessel Traffic Services operate around the clock, monitoring ship movements, issuing navigational information, and coordinating responses to incidents at sea. IMO updated its VTS Guidelines in 2021. The revision reflected two decades of organisational, operational, and technological change since the 1997 version.

Governments across the world run VTS centres to communicate with ships, respond quickly to developing situations, and raise navigational safety. Poland is no exception. Three VTS centres cover Polish waters: Gdynia, Szczecin, and Słupsk. Andrzej Kalata, Chief Inspector at the Maritime Safety Traffic Supervision and Monitoring Inspectorate of the Maritime Office in Gdynia, describes VTS as a relay point between the ship and the maritime office director. Each director has a VTS duty service to concentrate information in one place. When something goes wrong, nobody needs to chase data across dozens of harbor masters’ offices and port authority stations.

How the system divides up responsibility

The Inspectorate in Gdynia runs at least three duty services covering maritime safety in its broadest sense. Staff there come from sea-going backgrounds. The Inspectorate employs deck officers with hands-on experience and younger seafarers who transitioned into maritime administration. Kalata himself holds a master mariner certificate and also sails as a recreational yachtsman.

Local supervision of vessel movement along the Polish coast belongs to harbour master’s offices and port captain’s offices. Their territorial reach typically covers anchorages, roads, and a strip running about one nautical mile offshore. Beyond that limit, the VTS takes over as the primary coordination point. It handles emergencies: collisions, groundings, pollution incidents, and requests for a place of refuge.

Two VTS systems handle traffic management on Polish waters. The VTS Gulf of Gdańsk covers the area from latitude 54°45’N to the eastern boundary. It includes the roads and port areas, where the port captaincies of Gdynia and Gdańsk take over primary management. The VTS Szczecin–Świnoujście manages traffic on the western approaches, operating under the same principles and with similarly trained operators.

SafeSeaNet and Polish Rescue Radio

The Inspectorate also runs two further duty services. One coordinates SafeSeaNet — the EU-wide vessel movement reporting system under Directive 2002/59/EC. This system gives all EU member states and the European central server automatic, real-time access to vessel data. When a vessel carries dangerous cargo or a pollution incident occurs, SafeSeaNet tells responders instantly what was on board, how many people are aboard, where the ship came from, and where it was heading. The third service operates Polish Rescue Radio, covering all Polish maritime areas within the GMDSS framework.

Maritime zones and the limits of jurisdiction

Polish maritime waters break down into three legal zones. Internal waters — the Gulf of Gdańsk, Pomeranian Bay, and the Vistula Lagoon — sit entirely within Polish jurisdiction. Territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles from the baseline and form the full territorial reach of the Polish state. Here, the maritime office issues binding traffic orders and exercises complete control over ship movements. Beyond those 12 miles lies the Polish Exclusive Economic Zone. Poland holds exclusive rights there over resource exploitation, scientific research, and infrastructure development, such as offshore wind farms. Navigation regulation does not extend to the EEZ, which carries an international waters status under UNCLOS

Tools and enforcement

VTS duty officers monitor vessel movements using an array of tools. Radars, AIS receivers, and radio direction finders give continuous positional awareness. Long-range cameras extend effective visual coverage to up to 7 nautical miles. Together, these systems give VTS operators a detailed, real-time picture of traffic in their area of responsibility.
VTS duty services also carry a reporting obligation. When a vessel clearly breaks maritime regulations, the duty officer must file a report. Reasonable suspicion of a breach triggers the same obligation. A master who refuses to cooperate or repeatedly ignores VTS recommendations makes that report almost inevitable. A non-cooperative vessel also typically faces a Port State Control inspection on the berth immediately after arrival.

Where VTS fits in the broader structure

The VTS system does not replace the harbour master or the port captain. It sits above them as an information hub and emergency coordinator. The port captain manages the anchorage and roads. The harbour master runs the quayside. The VTS director connects both to the maritime office and to SAR command centres in Gdynia and Świnoujście, which form the search-and-rescue arm of the same structure.