IFC Shipping Advisory: Sea theft incident along Westbound Lane TSS, Singapore Strait

The Information Fusion Centre (IFC), a regional Maritime Security centre hosted by the Republic of Singapore Navy, on Thursday (6 July) released a warning to the shipping industry on sea thefts at the Singapore Strait:

The IFC received photographic evidence of a sea theft incident while transiting the Westbound Lane of Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS), Singapore Strait. 

Please advise your ship masters to watch out for similar types of wooden boats that are operating in the area, which typically feature a flat-bottomed hull with a narrow open deck. 

The photo above shows the boat used by the perpetrators in the incident.

The IFC recommends vessels transiting along the Singapore Strait to adopt ship protection measures such as: 

1. turn on weather deck lighting around the accommodation block and rear facing lighting on the poop deck,
2. maintain an all-round lookout at an elevated position with focus on suspicious small craft(s) approaching or in proximity to the ship’s aft, and (3) sound ship’s alarm when suspicious small craft(s) sighted. The IFC also encourages ships to provide photographic or video evidence to educate the industry the modus operandi of the perpetrators and help the authorities with their investigation.

The IFC also released an infographic of its mid-year report of the MARSEC (Maritime Security) situation in IFC’s area of interest from January to June 2023. The following is an excerpt of the infographic:

Note: The full infographic can be downloaded here.

Photo credit: Information Fusion Centre
Published: 11 July, 2023