Maritime Administration

With Bulgaria's recent entry into the Schengen area by air and sea, maritime border services are adapting to a new set of regulations that offer greater flexibility for passengers, yachts, and vessels traveling between Schengen ports. The shift in border control procedures brings significant changes for both crews and travelers aboard ships.

The US government has warned US-flagged ships in the Eastern Mediterranean of an "increased risk to commercial vessels operating in the region" in light of "current tensions and hostilities."

From 00.00 on April 16, 2022, access to the Bulgarian sea and river ports is prohibited for all vessels registered under the Russian flag, as well as for all vessels that have changed their Russian flag or registration to the flag or the register of which to be another country after February 24, 2022, according to the Maritime Administration.

Koper – A 10-year-old Turkish girl who went missing after she fell into the swollen Dragonja on the Slovenian-Croatian on Thursday evening and got swept downstream as her mother was carrying her on her shoulders across the river, was found dead around noon today.

The inspection of the ship stranded near Kamen Bryag is expected to continue today. The engine compartment and the hull of the vessel are flooded, which complicates the operation of unloading nitrogen fertilizer. Also today, the photos taken by the two divers who boarded the "Vera Su" yesterday should be analyzed.

A drone of the Naval School "Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov" monitors from the sky the ship Vera Su stranded near Kamen Bryag, the Ministry of Defense announced.

The Maritime School is part of an interdepartmental team formed to reduce potential risks and release the vessel, the ministry said.

An inexperienced sailor may have caused the shipwreck near Kamen Bryag on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Such a doubt was expressed by one diver during tv interview.

A Dutch company, which was involved in salvaging the Kursk submarine, is drawing up a plan to retrieve the Vera Su ship, which is stranded in the Yaylata area on Bulgaria's northern Black Sea coast. This was announced at a briefing by Bulgaria's Minister of Transport Hristo Alexiev, who arrived at the scene of the incident.

Koper – A new centre for maritime traffic control and management in crisis situations was inaugurated in Koper on Friday in what is a project that is expected to greatly improve navigation safety in the Slovenian territorial waters and decrease risk of accidents by as much as 70%.

Since the beginning of the season, the inspections of the tourist boats in Varna and the region have begun, said Captain Valentin Enchev, director of the Maritime Administration. He inspected the boats in the resort of Kamchia.