About the Swedish Maritime Administration

SMA is a governmental agency and enterprise within the transport sector and is responsible for maritime safety and availability.

Our services include, for example:

• Pilotage
• Fairway Service
• Maritime Traffic Information
• Icebreaking
• Hydrography
• Maritime and Aeronautical Search and Rescue
• Seamen's Service

Our activities focus primarily on merchant shipping, but also take the pleasure boating and fishing interests into account.

Primary tasks

The Swedish Maritime Administration’s primary mission is to promote favourable conditions for the maritime sector in Sweden and for Swedish shipping.

This includes:

Promoting safe, environmentally sound and efficient shipping.
Meeting the needs of the maritime sector for infrastructural services in the form of sea routes, pilotage, icebreaking, nautical information, communications and service.
Managing maritime and aeronautical search and rescue operations.
Safeguarding the competitiveness of the Swedish maritime sector
According to the Government’s instructions, the main focus of the Swedish Maritime Administration’s operations should be on merchant shipping, but the Administration should also look after the interests of recreational craft traffic, fishing and the Swedish Navy.

Infrastructure

The Swedish Maritime Administration is responsible for State obligations with regard to fairways, including hydrographic surveys and buoyage in fairways, icebreaking and hydrographic information (production of navigational charts).

Maritime Traffic Service

The Administration assigns to this area the mainly regionally oriented operational areas of maritime traffic information (Vessel Traffic Service, VTS), pilotage and maritime and aeronautical search and rescue connected to the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) in Göteborg and the operational activities of the maritime traffic areas.

Issues related to sector responsibility and the government agency role

Through its sector responsibility, the Swedish Maritime Administration also has the important task of developing measurable objectives and indicators and of reporting the progress of the Administration and the maritime sector as a whole towards attaining transport policy objectives.