Reporting marine incidents

Reporting marine incidents is an important part of ensuring the safety of people and vessels.

By reporting marine incidents to AMSA you are meeting your reporting obligations under the following laws.

What’s required Reported by Which law applies
The owner or master of an applicable vessel (i.e. foreign vessel, regulated Australian vessel) must report to AMSA. Owner, master Sections 185 and 186 of the Navigation Act 2012 (Navigation Act)

The owner or master of a domestic commercial vessel must report to AMSA.


Note: If you comply with reporting obligations arising under the Navigation Act it will also in most cases—if not all—comply with similar obligations under the national law.

 Owner, master Sections 88 and 89 of the Marine Safety (Domestic Commercial Vessel) National Law Act 2012, Schedule 1 (National Law)
Vessel operators of prescribed ships or units—for example Australian ships, offshore industry units—on international or interstate voyages must report incidents and dangerous occurrences to AMSA. Vessel operator Section 107 of the Occupational Health and Safety (Maritime Industry) Act 1993 (OHS(MI) Act)

A responsible person must report to (AMSA or ATSB) as soon as possible.

Note: Completing and submitting the incident alert form 18 and incident report form 19 to AMSA is sufficient to fulfill the reporting obligation under the TSI Act.

Responsible person (This includes master, owner, operator, agent, pilot, pilotage provider, or vessel traffic service authority)

Note: Organisations such as VTS or pilotage providers should have procedures in place to identify who will report an incident, and follow-up to ensure an incident has been reported.

Section 18 and 19 of the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003 (TSI Act)
Part 3 of the Transport Safety Investigation Regulations 2021

  
Note: a pilotage provider or vessel traffic service authority are as defined in the Navigation Act 2012.

Reporting safety defects

What's required Reported by

Where defects are discovered that affect: the safety of the ship, or affects the integrity of the environmental protection measures, the Master or Owner are obligated to advise AMSA, as the port State for Australia, as well as the flag State and Recognised Organisation. 

Note: Submitting the incident alert form 18 and/or incident report form 19 to AMSA is sufficient to fulfill this reporting obligation.

 Owner, master

It is unlikely AMSA will accept a dispensation for a defect if the Convention doesn't allow for dispensations.

In these cases, AMSA expects action to be taken to ensure compliance or provide documentation that complies to the requirements of the Convention.

Learn more about dispensations.