Owners of Panama-flagged ships could face fines of up to $10,000 and potentially be de-flagged if they tamper with vessel tracking transponders.
The country’s maritime authority said in a merchant marine notice that the sanctions would be imposed on all those Panamanian flagged vessels that “deliberately deactivate, tamper or alter the operation of long-range identification and tracking system [LRIT] or the AIS”.
Rafael Cigarruista, head of Panama’s Merchant Marine, told Reuters that the decision to sanction ships that do not comply with the rules were part of commitments made by Panama to avoid sanctions from international organisations.
“We want our ships to not deliberately turn off their equipment,” Cigarruista told the news agency.
Constant monitoring
The Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) said it is “constantly monitoring its fleet and it will initiate an internal investigation if it detects a vessel’s transponder is down or not reporting”.
It said an automatic alert would be delivered to the vessel each time either the LRIT or the AIS was not reporting, or was deliberately deactivated.
The PMA said that the investigation may “culminate with sanctions that will be deemed appropriate [and] in some cases where the vessel is found having this conduct on regular bases could be de-flagged or deleted from the registry.”
Panama is the world’s largest shipping registry, with a fleet of more than 9,000 vessels registered under its flag totalling over 225m gt.
The move by the Panama comes just days after the US issued guidance on illicit shipping and sanctions evasion practices.
It warned that shipping companies looking to avoid sanctions often turn off their AIS, physically alter the ship's name and IMO number painted on the vessel, jump from flag state to flag state, carry false documentation and engage in ship-to-ship transfers.
