Navigating in Øresund - one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world

The northern side of Øresund in an engraving from 1594

Øresund (also called the Sound), which connects Kattegat and the North Sea with Baltic Sea, has always been one of the world´s busiest shipping lanes. The number of ships annually passing through Øresund is now approximately 40.000.

This  Øresund chart was done by the famous Swedish cartographer  Gustav  af  Klint in the  early 19 th  century

Several large ports - Copenhagen, Malmö, Helsingborg and Landskrona - are located in Øresund. In addition to the ships on regular passenger and cargo routes, a large number of other ship types - e.g. cruise ships, oil tankers and chemical tankers - are passing through the Sound on their way to or from ports in the Baltic. In addition, a great number fishing vessels and leasure boats use Øresund.

Map of  Øresund
(wikipedia)

The Danish and Swedish maritime authorities in 2006 published a study, "Navigational safety in the Sound between Denmark and Sweden (Øresund)" in which they stated:

Thus, it is seen that the traffic in Øresund consists of a mixture of different ship
types and does thus require good skills and awareness from the navigator on the
ships when passing Øresund.

There are specific limitations and requirements for navigation in Øresund:

There are large differences in e.g. width of the navigation channels at various places,
in water depth etc. Ships coming into Øresund from north may have a draught of up
to 11.5 m when visiting the port of København and 13,5 m when visiting the port of
Malmö. However, further south - through Drogden and Flintrännan –the water depth
is 8 m and 8.4 m, respectively.

It is easy to understand the consequenses if there would be a major accident in the busy Øresund waters. Among the 139 accidents during the time period 1997 - 2005, covered in the report, the human factor and fatigue were responsible for almost one third of the cases.

Container ship Mito Strait prepared to take a Swedish pilot on board in Øresund

The small number of accidents is to a large part due to the pilotage offered both by Swedish and Danish pilots. The Danish-Swedish maritime safety report, mentioned above, describes the pilotage regulations in Øresund:

Requirements for use of pilot for specific ship cargos or ship sizes

Compulsory pilotage shall apply to the following merchant ships when navigating
interior and exterior Danish territorial waters, ref. [36] and includes the following:
• Oil tankers with cargo.
• Chemical tankers carrying cargoes of dangerous liquid chemicals included in
IMO’s chemicals code (International Maritime Organization’s “Code for the
Construction and Equipment of Ships Carrying Dangerous Chemicals in
Bulk”).
• Gas tankers.
• Ships carrying radioactive cargoes.
Compulsary pilotage for Swedish territorial waters is described in ref. [37] and is in
general similar to the descriptions applying for Danish waters above.

A Swedish pilot boat approaching Helsingborg

On the way to meet a ship entering the Sound

The pilot boats in Helsingborg

This is a distinguished Swedish pilot from the early 1920s: