Canada issues ship safety bulletin on drone use

MAY 22, 2017 — Transport Canada has issued a ship safety bulletin intended to make the marine community aware of the rules and regulations that apply to Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs), or drones.

Drones are used for commercial and recreational purposes. Currently, different rules apply to commercial and recreational drones:

In most cases, commercial drones should not fly closer than 100 lateral feet away (approx. 30 meters) from any building, structure, vehicle, vessel, animal, or person.

If the drone weighs more than 1 kg, this distance grows to 500 lateral feet away (approx. 150 meters).

Recreational drones (regardless of size) should not fly closer than 75 meters (approx. 250 feet) from buildings, vessels or people.

Transport Canada is developing a strong regulatory framework that will apply to both commercial and recreational drone operators and expects to publish new regulations later this year.

Meantime, says the agency, “If you see someone is flying a drone near a vessel or a port facility in a way that poses a threat to safety, security or privacy, please report the incident to local police for investigation.

“If you think someone is flying a drone in an irresponsible manner and it is not an emergency, please complete and submit a Drone Incident Report Form at: http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/opssvs/drone-incident-report-form.html.“

Download the Transport Canada bulletin HERE