Panama urges fleet to avoid Red Sea, keep AIS on

The Panama Maritime Authority said today it "strongly recommends" all Panama-flagged vessels avoid transiting the Red Sea because of the increasing threat of Houthi attacks on commercial vessels, while warning vessels against turning off their automatic identification system (AIS).

Some ship operators have chosen to disable their vessel's AIS to avoid detection by the Houthis with varying levels of success when transiting the region. That puts these vessels out of compliance with "international requirements related to position reporting," the authority said in a notice.

More than 120 commercial and private vessels flagged by Panama were transiting the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden on Friday, according to vessel tracking data reliant on AIS.

"All vessels hoisting the Panama flag before, during and after transiting the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Persian and their approaches must keep the AIS and long-range identification (LRIT) on except in those cases in which the captain considers that the safety of the vessel could be compromised or when a safety incident is imminent," the notice said. "The Panama Maritime Authority may sanction violations of such provisions in accordance with national legislation, if they do not formally report through LRIT and AIS to our administration at the appropriate time."

The authority said the Bahamas-flagged vessel Galaxy Trader had operated without its AIS for 24 hours, traveling 250 nautical miles through the region, before being attacked by Houthis anyway.

For vessels continuing to transit through the region, recommendations by the authority include traveling by night to avoid detection and installing searchlights to scan for the small vessels that likely act as spotters, the appearance of which have preceded Houthi missile attacks.

But traveling by night comes with another risk. "At night, small and slow boats without a wake are difficult to detect on radar," the authority warned. "Don't stop if threatened and present a challenging target through proactive maneuvers."

The Panamanian flag is flown by the plurality of flagged ships in operation at 17pc of the global fleet, represented by over 8,000 vessels, according to the state-owned Panama Ship Registry.

By Ross Griffith