- A part of the Coastguard fleet, Royal Dutch Navy
Coastguard
The Coastguard is an organization in which 6 ministries work jointly: Transportation, Defense, Justice, Treasury, Nature and Internal Affairs. With the help of surveillance airplanes, ships and helicopters execute a large number of tasks which have to do with safety at sea, combatting disasters, maintaining nature, environmental and fishing regulations and sustaining navigational routes. Custom tasks at sea are also carried out by the Coastguard.
- Cooperation
- Patrol plane used for tracking oil dumpers, Photo Koninklijke Marine
The Coastguard works in the Dutch territorial waters (twelve-mile zone) and on and above the Dutch part of the Continental Plate. Every year, between 300,000 and 400,000 ship movements are followed from the Coastguard center in Den Helder. Because the automatic identification system (AIS) is required for all sea-going ships larger than 300 tons, surveillence is much easier than it used to be.
In 2006, the Coastguard received unconditional control over airplanes and vessels from the government. The Ministries used to have priority over use of the vessels, which made it more complicated to deploy them in cases of emergency. At the end of 2007, the Coastguard will receive two new surveillance airplanes to replace the present one.
See also
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