Live Tides
NOTICES TO MARINERS
Charts & Surveys
Incident reporting
Life-threatening emergencies on the river:
Call 999 and ask for the Coastguard
For near miss, safety observations and incident reporting click below
Safety campaigns
Dangerously Weighted Heaving Lines
2024
Masters and crews of vessels visiting the Thames are required to use properly constructed heaving lines for all mooring and towing operations. The use of ‘weighted' heaving lines is both prohibited and extremely dangerous.
These may cause serious injury or a fatality to those on the receiving end, either ashore or onboard a tug or mooring boat
Safe Boarding Week 2024
Safe Boarding Week was a week-long safety initiative conducted by the Port of London Authority, from 4th to 10th March 2024. Its aim was to increase awareness of safe access to and from vessels and highlight the importance the PLA places on safety on the 95 miles of the tidal Thames that it manages.
Team members from the Chief Harbour Master's department were on the river making assessments of boarding arrangements.
James Stride, Chief Harbour Master said: "Globally, accidents involving gangways and pilot boarding ladders continue to occur and it is only through focussed campaigns and engagement with ships’ crew, their management and the berths/jetties operators that we can make tangible improvements."
Watch Your Wash
We've launched #WatchYourWash to increase awareness of the potential risks of vessel wash and draw-off on river users along the tidal Thames.
A quarter of all reported navigational incidents in 2022 at the PLA were related to wash complaints, which are increasing year on year.
As well as causing a risk to the safety of navigation, and to the safety of other river users, such as the houseboat community, wash or draw off can have a detrimental impact on the environment and wildlife, through noise and disruption.
Safe Boarding Week 2023
Safe Boarding Week 2023 was a European-first safety initiative conducted by the Port of London Authority, from 27th February to 5th March 2023.
The purpose of this campaign was to promote safe vessel access on the Thames through carrying out inspections of vessel access arrangements, with a focus on education and rectification when a non-compliance was identified.
Look After Each Other Afloat
We're encouraging all river users to report navigational near misses they see on the tidal Thames.
Reports are essential as an early warning of existing and potential danger, allowing measures to be taken to reduce the possibility of serious navigational incidents.
Cathryn Spain, our senior harbour master, said: “Near miss reporting plays a valuable part in continuous safety improvement, so I would urge all river users to report any navigational near miss, however small or insignificant it may seem.”
2020: We called on river users to make reporting tidal Thames ‘near misses’ a priority.
2018: We’re asked all Port of London vessel owners and operators on the Thames to keep their boats in good working order.
2017: We called on everyone on the River Thames to reduce the number of human error incidents in the Port of London.
