The traffic of tug/barges which are carrying construction materials, large plants for harbor development, or offshore structures has recently increased in the coast of Korea. The west and south coast of Korea are always congested due to a lot of islands and traffic concentration. Specially tug/barges have higher probability of marine accidents due to their bad maneuverability than others. Considering the operational circumstance and maneuverability, this study was to develop a wide-area monitoring and control system for tug/barges in the coastal area of Korea. The system was made in the form of three program modules i.e. navigation analysis program module, monitoring and control program module, database module. And seven functions were programmed to monitor and control the tug/barges efficiently. These are ship information search, tug/barge information and track management, designated area and safe navigation zone management, fairway management, accident data management, warning of danger, safety information management.

Marine accidents related to the tug-barges are frequent recently, such as oil spill caused by collision between oil tankers and tug-barges. There are many causes of these accidents, but poor working condition of operators takes up a considerable part of most causes. That is, the danger of accidents caused by fatigue accumulation exists in tug-barges of less than 200 gross tonnage engaged on near-coastal voyages or short shipping, because of the long-distance navigational watch by only one master. This paper aims to deduce problems of human element part out of the plan of sqfe navigation, and to propose legal amendments for preventing marine accidents by tug-barges.