Bulgaria orders ships to report in advance after Black Sea drone attacks
Every vessel must file a report two hours before entering Bulgarian territorial waters, detailing cargo, crew and fuel. A U.S. Navy maritime patrol aircraft circled over the sea at the same time.
Symbolic image · Photo: Alexey Komarov / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Bulgaria is tightening controls in the Black Sea following attacks on merchant ships off its coast. In an extraordinary navigational notice, maritime authorities require all vessels planning to transit Bulgaria's territorial sea to submit a special report exactly two hours before entering. The move follows, among other incidents, the sinking of a container ship southeast of Varna after an attack.
The report must include the ship's name, IMO number and flag, its entry point with coordinates and estimated time, and its last and next ports of call. Masters must declare their cargo, especially dangerous goods, harmful substances and gases, as well as the number of people on board and the type and quantity of fuel and lubricants. Technical faults must be reported immediately. No start date or duration for the rules was given.
On Saturday, a U.S. Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft also monitored the western Black Sea, flying several wide circuits east of the Bulgarian coast. Such flights are used to track vessels and spot potential threats to shipping.