A Basic Study on Difficulties of Ship Operation Under Restricted Visibility Due to Heavy Fog

摘要

It is very important to provide daily maritime transportation services, especially, in island areas. However, navigation is sometimes cancelled because of heavy fog. Although this is well known among ship operators, the associated situations and problems are not fully understood. In this study, we focus on the difficulties of ship operations under conditions of restricted visibility. First, casualties that occur under conditions of restricted visibility are researched. Then, a nationwide questionnaire was distributed to ship operators to learn the details of the current situations and operational problems. These results were statistically analyzed to demonstrate their operational limits. Moreover, interviews were conducted with a local ferry company to obtain recent cancellation records of navigation. The weather parameters on the dates of cancellations were analyzed and compared in a few cases with the other findings from the questionnaire and the interview research.