Although the Maritime Office in Słupsk formally resumed operations on 1 August, its new management and the scope of its responsibilities were presented on Monday, 3 August, during a specially convened press conference.

"The Central Coast is an area undergoing numerous investments and significant transformation, and therefore needs a strong maritime administration that is close to citizens and makes decisions close to the people they affect. Central Pomerania has become a centre of the energy transition. Wherever ports, maritime infrastructure and tourism are developing, there is a need for competent, professional and specialised administration capable of making decisions close to people and businesses" – said Arkadiusz Marchewka, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure.

During the conference, held outside the Maritime Office's headquarters on Niemcewicza Street in Słupsk, an identification plaque for the institution was officially unveiled. It is exactly the same plaque that hung there six years ago.

Priorities of the new director

Anna Sędzińska has been appointed Director of the Maritime Office in Słupsk. Two deputies have also been appointed: Paulina Iwin as Deputy Director for Technical Affairs and Jan Ścieszka as Deputy Director for Maritime Inspection.

According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the management's key responsibilities will include carrying out the statutory duties of the office within its territorial jurisdiction. These include ensuring navigational safety, inspecting vessels, monitoring vessel traffic, exercising maritime administration powers in the ports and harbours of the Central Coast, protecting the coastline and managing areas within the technical protection belt.

Another important area of activity will be the maintenance and modernisation of hydrotechnical infrastructure providing access to ports, including approach channels, inner harbour fairways and breakwaters.

"Of course, the office will deal with matters concerning the Central Coast. However, given the very rapid development of offshore wind energy and service ports in this area, there will be a dedicated unit dealing with this type of activity" – Deputy Minister Arkadiusz Marchewka told Gospodarka Morska.pl

Anna Sędzińska, the newly appointed Director of the Maritime Office in Słupsk, added that the institution's activities in Central Pomerania would differ somewhat from those of its counterparts in Gdynia and Szczecin.

"Offshore will be the dominant activity in our maritime waters. We also do not have any ports of strategic importance to the state, so our activities are somewhat different. In recent years, our focus has been primarily on coastal protection, and I think we have done that well. We will see how the ports develop, because there will now be pressure to expand them, as service ports will be needed" – Sędzińska said.

At the same time, major investment plans for ports along the Central Pomeranian coast continue to resurface from time to time. One such proposal is the construction of an outer port in Ustka.

"The Ustka outer port was being designed back in our day, but the work was not subsequently carried out" – Director Sędzińska recalled.

She added that several concepts for its construction had been considered. In an interview with Gospodarka Morska, the director also noted that although the site of the construction of Poland's first nuclear power plant in the Choczewo municipality falls under the jurisdiction of the Maritime Office in Gdynia, Łeba is being considered as the service port for the project. Łeba, in turn, lies within the area of responsibility of the newly reinstated Maritime Office in Słupsk.

Photo: GospodarkaMorska.pl