Marine Living Resources Act, 1998 (Act No. 18 of 1998)RegulationsRegulations for the Entry of Foreign Fishing Vessels into South African Waters, 2025Chapter 3 - General9. Vessel Automatic Identification System |
| (1) | The master of a foreign vessel must ensure that the vessel’s Automatic Information System (AIS) is functional and that it— |
| (a) | regularly reports from at least 50 nautical miles prior to entering South African waters; |
| (b) | reports while the vessel is located within South African waters without interruption; and |
| (c) | regularly reports up until the vessel has at least reached 50 nautical miles outside of South African waters. |
| (2) | The master of a foreign vessel must— |
| (a) | immediately report an interruption of the vessel’s automatic information system’s signal to the VMS Operations Centre where the interruption lasts longer than 20 minutes; and |
| (b) | submit hourly reports to VMS Operations Centre until the vessel’s automatic information system is functional and able to report. |
| (3) | The master’s reports in subregulation (2) to the VMS Operations Centre must be sent by email to “[email protected]” and must include— |
| (a) | the date and time (South African local time); |
| (b) | the vessel’s location by latitude and longitude degrees minutes and decimal minutes; |
| (c) | the vessel’s course; and |
| (d) | the vessel’s speed in knots. |
| (4) | No person may delete any tracking data from a vessel’s automatic information system recorded from the time of entry by the foreign vessel into South African waters for a period of seven calendar days after leaving South African waters. |