Directorate Vessel Traffic Services Authority – Black Sea is a division in Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Compnay and provides services to enhance the safety and efficiency of shipping,  the safety of life at sea, protection of the marine environment and coastline from ship-generated pollution and any harmfull effects of shipping.

Vessel Traffic Services Authority provides services in management of traffic and information service to navigation, by issuing advice and recommendations related to safety of navigation, supporting on-board decision-making in complex meteorological and navigational environment and organizes the movement of vessels in order to prevent the emergence and development of danger of accident and collision.

By the National Center for E-documentation in Maritime Transport, Vessel Traffic Services Authority provides information service to the ports by improving the organization of documents processing on issuance permits of “Notice of Arrival”, “Port Clearance” and “Sailing Permission”, in order to shorten the time for documents processing using the forms standardized by the recommendations of IMO (FAL Forms).

The Coast Radio Station “Varna Radio”, in accordance with the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), provides continuous 24-hour monitoring of international channels and frequencies for distress (zones А1and А2 of GMDSS) and distributes marine safety information (information about hydro-meteorological conditions, navigational warnings and other information related to the conditions and safety of navigation). It provides communications at sea in maritime disasters and accidents.

The Directorate performs the complete activities on technical operation and maintenance of the facilities, systems and subsystems for Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and performs information services to marine ports, including the main and auxiliary equipment of VTS, VTMIS (Vessel Traffic Management and Information System), GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety System) and SSN (Safe Sea Net).

Vessel Traffic Services Authority exchanges information with other systems, provided by law or international obligations to which Republic of Bulgaria is a party.