A Wasser- und Schifffahrtsamt (WSA - ''Waterways and Shipping Office'') is a federal German agency, responsible for the administration of federal navigable waters and for the regulation of vessel traffic. The thirty-nine offices are supervised by the national Wasser- und Schifffahrtsverwaltung des Bundes (WSV - ''Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration'') and accountable to the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. In total the offices cover 23,000 km² of maritime waters and 7,350 km of inland waterways.

WSA stations

Each WSA has a defined geographical coverage. For example, WSA Lauenburg covers a section of the River Elbe together with tributaries and the Elbe-Lübeck Canal; WSA Cuxhaven covers the lower Elbe and an extensive sea area.

Service

Waterways

In the infrastructure, the waterways and shipping authorities perform the following sovereign tasks for the federal waterways and shipping administration: * Maintenance and operation of the federal waterways and the federal shipping facilities (such as locks, weirs, operations centers, etc.) * Police tasks * Setting and operating of navigation signs * water level documentation and information * Icefighting (with own icebreakers) The Administration operates a fleet of about a dozen icebreakers. The newest, the ''

Keiler The ''Keiler'' is a river icebreaker commissioned in December 2011 to serve as the flagship of Lauenburg's Water and Shipping Authority fleet of ten icebreakers, on the Elbe River. The vessel is long and wide. She has a crew of four, and has ...

'', was delivered in December 2011. Their oldest existing icebreaker, the ''Steinbock'', was commissioned in 1935. The ''Keiler'', and another new vessel, the '' Kietz'', are long and wide, with a draft of . They are diesel powered, with engines that produce {{convert, 1100, hp, kW. They cost 5 million

Euros The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . T ...

each. Other vessels include the '' Widder, Stier'' and the '' Wisent''.

Inland navigation

According to the law on the tasks of the federal government in the field of inland navigation, the waterways and shipping offices perform the following sovereign tasks_ * Promotion of the inland fleet and inland waterway transport * Defense against dangers to the safety and smoothness of traffic as well as the prevention of dangers emanating from shipping (shipping police) and harmful environmental effects within the meaning of the Federal Immission Control Act * Granting permission for watercraft to travel on federal waterways

Sea navigation

* Promotion of the German merchant fleet and provision for maintaining the efficiency of the seaports * Defense against dangers to the safety and smoothness of traffic as well as the prevention of dangers emanating from maritime shipping (shipping police) and harmful environmental effects within the meaning of the Federal Immission Control Act * seaward of the boundary of the territorial sea, shipping police, averting dangers and eliminating disturbances to public security or order * Measures to fulfill tasks incumbent on the federal government in the field of maritime shipping based on other regulations

References