There are enormous challenges in the Istanbul Strait- one of the most important, congested and narrow waterways in the world - from the view point of risk determination and risk mitigation for the local traffic. Previously several traffic parameters such as; traffic volume for local vessels, traffic flow and potential encounters of local traffic, in addition to the possibility of collision, were investigated in order to determine the degree of dangers in the southern entrance of the Istanbul Strait. Furthermore, risky zones were also determined in this waterway. On the basis of the results of those, a group of expert was surveyed. These experts were pilots, Vessel Traffic Services Operators (VTS-O), Local Traffic Vessel Captains and Master Mariners who had several experience of navigation through the Istanbul Strait. In order to assess experts perceptions of danger and to propose further studies based on this survey. The questionnaire was analyzed by using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) program version 13.0. Finally, some differences and/or shares on risk perceptions of expert in the Istanbul Strait are considered.

The Istanbul Strait is one of the important waterways in the world. And its southern entrance has a highly congested local traffic. Till now there are several studies regarding how the Istanbul Strait is dangerous to navigate and how those dangers can be mitigated. But there is no study regarding local traffic which is posing great collision risk. In a certain traffic area, marine traffic safety assessment parameters are traffic volume, frequency of collision avoidance maneuver, traffic density, traffic flow and potential encounter, In this paper local traffic volume, traffic flow and potential encounter number of local traffic vessels and possibility of collision are investigated in order to find degree of danger at the southern entrance of the Istanbul Strait. Finally by utilizing those, risky areas are determined for southern entrance of the Istanbul Strait. Results have been compared to a previous study regarding risk analysis at congested areas of the Istanbul Strait (Aydogdu, 2006) and consistency of the results were presented.