Spain’s NAVAREA III coordinator has replaced last week’s in-force list with weekly group 44. The working primary retrieved this run is NAVAREA III 0168/26: MEDITERRANEAN SEA, BLACK SEA AND AZOV SEA. NAVAREAS III IN FORCE, WEEKLY GROUP 44. NAVAREA III IN FORCE ON 03 NOV 26 AT 0600 UTC. 2022:0092, 0122, 0124. 2024:0034, 0113. 2026:0036, 0086, 0122, 0132, 0137, 0160, 0168. Only those less than 42 days old are transmitted daily by SafetyNet and SafetyCast at 1200 UTC and 2359 UTC. All existing NAVAREA III radio alerts are available on the Spanish Hydrographic Institute site. New NAVAREA III radio alerts are also published in the weekly group of Notices to Mariners, section 5. Cancel this message on 092359 UTC November 2026. That is Tuesday’s working NAVAREA III in-force instrument. It is a numbered weekly list, not a new Black Sea wreck, not a Hormuz Attack PDF, and not a rewrite of this morning’s dedicated NAVWARN 784/26 Ahtopol tank.
The list is a NAVAREA III product. It is not NAVAREA IX 427/26 — Pakistan’s public board still ends at 426/26. It is not a Bulgarian NAVWARN 789. It is not UKMTO 194-26. Masters who brief Tuesday afternoon as a new Contship Jet NAVAREA, as a Khoryv move onto SafetyNet, as a silent pickup of 784/26’s Ahtopol tank, or as a cancellation of the standing Black Sea mine and war-risk series will have misread a weekly group-change. 0168/26 tells the bridge which NAVAREA III numbers are in force at 0600 UTC on 3 November. It does not reprint those warnings’ full texts, and it does not swallow coastal NAVWARNs that never sat on this list.
What 0168/26 actually printed
The hydrographic text is short and is the working primary. Weekly group 44. In force on 3 November 2026 at 0600 UTC. Cancel 092359 UTC 9 November 2026. The 2026 numbers now in force are 0036, 0086, 0122, 0132, 0137, 0160 and 0168 itself. The standing older numbers remain 2022:0092, 0122, 0124 and 2024:0034, 0113. Stay with that wording. The coordinator printed neither a new wreck plot, a new mine field, a new keep-clear radius, a hull name against Contship Jet or Khoryv, nor a cancellation of the Ukrainian port-route or northwestern Black Sea mine series. Do not invent a 0169. Do not invent a Black Sea drifting-tank NAVAREA. Do not treat group 44 as a clean-sheet. It is last week’s list with one 2026 number dropped and the weekly wrapper renumbered.
The drop is the first briefing fact. Last week’s dedicated-period list, NAVAREA III 0167/26, weekly group 43, in force on 27 October 2026 at 0600 UTC, carried 2026:0036, 0086, 0100, 0122, 0132, 0137, 0160 and 0167, and cancelled itself at 022359 UTC 2 November. 0168/26 no longer prints 0100/26. Official 0100/26 was a Western Mediterranean drifting-target shooting exercise, navigation exclusion area, 290001–292359 UTC 29 October or 300001–302359 UTC 30 October, self-cancelled at 310100 UTC 31 October. Its disappearance from Tuesday’s wrapper is housekeeping after a completed firing window, not a new Mediterranean all-clear and not a Black Sea event. A passage plan that still carries 0100/26 as an in-force NAVAREA III number after 0600 UTC on 3 November is a week late. A passage plan that treats the drop as a cancellation of 0122/26, 0132/26, 0137/26 or 0160/26 has deleted the Black Sea rig watches that are still on the list.
The SafetyNet rule is the second briefing fact. Paragraph 1 of 0168/26 is unchanged in substance from 0167/26: only warnings less than 42 days old are transmitted daily by SafetyNet and SafetyCast at 1200 UTC and 2359 UTC. The 2022 mine and war-risk series and the 2024 NAVTEX and Ukrainian-route series remain in force on the list and are older than 42 days. They will not appear on the twice-daily satellite broadcast merely because they are still numbered. Masters who treat “not heard at 1200 UTC” as “cancelled” have under-read paragraph 1. Paragraph 2 still points at the Spanish Hydrographic Institute NAVAREA page as the complete radio-alert file. Paragraph 3 still points at the weekly Notices to Mariners, section 5, for new alerts. Paragraph 4 kills this wrapper at 092359 UTC on 9 November unless a later weekly group replaces it first.
Industry-reprint colour, held separately: SeaLagom first carried 0168/26 with an issued stamp of 2 November 00:00 UTC and a last-modified stamp of 3 November 08:40 UTC, and marked 0100/26 and 0167/26 withdrawn in the last 24 hours. The working in-force clock on the official text is 030600 UTC 3 November. Do not treat the 2 November issued stamp as a second list. Do not treat the 08:40 UTC modify stamp as a second in-force time. Log 030600 UTC 3 November and 092359 UTC 9 November from the numbered message.
What remains in force under this wrapper
The 2026 operational watches that still sit under 0168/26 are unchanged as to plot. Official 0160/26 remains Black Sea drilling by Yavuz platform, IMO 9503768, MMSI 271046765, supported by Osman Bey, Aybuke, Florya, Muruvvet Ilhan, Mihrimah, Menderes, Ertugrul Bey, Orhan Bey and Yesilkoy, 20 October 2026 to 3 January 2027, area 42-48.95N 031-08.55E, 42-48.98N 031-11.27E, 42-50.98N 031-11.20E, 42-50.95N 031-08.48E, 10 nautical miles receipt required, cancel 032059 UTC 3 January 2027, cancelling 0128/26. Official 0132/26 remains Black Sea drilling by Fatih platform, IMO 9503770, MMSI 271046008, same support spread, 4 September 2026 to 23 March 2027, area 42-08.43N 030-11.00E, 42-08.49N 030-13.69E, 42-10.49N 030-13.60E, 42-10.43N 030-10.91E, 10 nautical miles berth requested, cancel 232359 UTC 23 March 2027, cancelling 0105/26. Official 0122/26 remains Black Sea drilling by Abdulhamid Han rig, IMO 9705093, MMSI 271050408, 19 August to 27 November 2026, area 43-05.03N 031-36.52E, 43-05.03N 031-39.95E, 43-02.63N 031-39.95E, 43-02.63N 031-36.52E, 10 nautical miles receipt requested, cancel 272059 UTC 27 November 2026, cancelling 0114/26. Official 0137/26 remains Neptun Alpha production platform established at 44-02.85N 030-35.25E, maintain a safe distance of 500 metres. Official 0086/26 remains Adriatic Sea Key Manhattan rig drilling, 3 June to 20 November 2026, 44-05.12N 013-45.27E, wide berth requested, cancel 202359 UTC 20 November 2026. Official 0036/26 remains NATO Operation Sea Guardian in the Mediterranean until further notice, voluntary reporting requested, further information at shipping.nato.int.
The standing 2022 and 2024 numbers are still on the wrapper. 2022:0092 remains the northwestern Black Sea mine-danger prohibited areas. 2022:0122 remains possible drifting mines in the northwest, west and southwest Black Sea. 2022:0124 remains the war-risk area north of the printed line. 2024:0034 remains the Ukrainian port entry and exit routes and holding areas, daily 0200–1700 UTC. 2024:0113 remains the NAVTEX station update, including Berdiansk not operational. 0168/26 does not amend those texts. It only confirms they are still in force at 0600 UTC on 3 November. A master who dropped the mine and war-risk series because “weekly group 44 looks short” has under-read the 2022 lines. A master who treated 0168/26 as a new Ukrainian-corridor rewrite has over-read a wrapper.
What this is not
This is not a NAVAREA III pickup of Contship Jet, Khoryv, or this morning’s Ahtopol tank. Thursday afternoon’s dedicated NAVWARN 768/26 remains M/V Contship Jet, IMO 9348625, sunk 43-07.80N 028-45.36E. Thursday morning’s dedicated 766/26 remains Khoryv five-cable at 43-30.60N 028-43.69E. This morning’s dedicated 784/26 remains a drifting tank at 42-09.2N 027-58.6E, east of Ahtopol, official Bulgarian in-force board. Monday morning’s dedicated 779/26 remains four drifting containers east of Burgas Bay. 786/26, 787/26 and 788/26 remain wrap on this morning’s 784/26. None of those Bulgarian coastal numbers appear in 0168/26’s 2026 list. They are NAVWARN / NAVIM products, not NAVAREA III radio alerts. A DPA who briefs Tuesday afternoon as “NAVAREA III has now got the tank” has promoted a Varna Radio object onto a Spanish weekly wrapper that does not print it. SafetyNet at 1200 UTC and 2359 UTC will not carry 784/26 merely because 0168/26 is in force. Keep the Bulgarian coastal file in the master’s pack alongside this list, not inside it.
This is not NAVAREA IX 423/26, and it is not 424/26 or 426/26. 423/26 remains the 310300 UTC October NAVAREA IX in-force list — a different coordinator, a different ocean. Dedicated 424/26 remains the 3–4 November Pakistan firing box, 0300–0600 UTC, cancel 040700 UTC 4 November. 426/26 remains wrap on last night’s 425/26, a 3 November 0300–0700 UTC Pakistan firing box that self-cancelled at 030800 UTC 3 November. 0168/26 does not print those corners and does not cancel them. Do not collapse a Mediterranean and Black Sea weekly list onto an Arabian Sea firing box.
This is not this morning’s dedicated IMO 125-count, not last night’s dedicated 193-26, not last night’s dedicated 425/26 Selat Storm, and not Tuesday afternoon’s dedicated Indian MSV Al Jusufi naming. Those are Hormuz, Musandam and IMO-board instruments. A NAVAREA III wrapper does not belong on that tape. UKMTO still ends at 193-26. NAVAREA IX still ends at 426/26. No 194-26, no 427/26, no Update 111 and no IMO 126 this run.
This is not a cancellation of 0160/26, 0132/26, 0122/26 or 0137/26. Yavuz still drills through 3 January 2027. Fatih still drills through 23 March 2027. Abdulhamid Han still drills through 27 November 2026 — that cancel clock is 24 days away, not this afternoon. Neptun Alpha still sits at 44-02.85N 030-35.25E with a 500-metre berth. Key Manhattan still drills in the Adriatic through 20 November. Sea Guardian still asks for voluntary Mediterranean reporting. The only 2026 number that left the wrapper is 0100/26, and that firing window already killed itself on 31 October.
Operational implications
For a master already shaping a Black Sea, Azov, Turkish or Romanian transit, or a Mediterranean passage under Sea Guardian reporting, Tuesday afternoon is a new weekly wrapper, not a new wreck. Replace 0167/26, weekly group 43, with 0168/26, weekly group 44, in the NAVAREA folder. Keep the underlying 2026 rig and platform texts. Keep the 2022 mine and war-risk texts and the 2024 Ukrainian-route and NAVTEX texts. Do not expect those older-than-42-days warnings on the 1200 UTC or 2359 UTC SafetyNet broadcast. Pull them from the Spanish Hydrographic Institute page or from the weekly Notices to Mariners. Do not expect Bulgarian 768/26, 766/26, 779/26 or 784/26 on that same broadcast; those remain coastal NAVWARNs on hs-navy.mod.bg and on the master’s Black Sea coastal pack, including 775/26’s two-hour e-mail to [email protected] before a Bulgarian territorial-sea entry.
The 10-nautical-mile Yavuz, Fatih and Abdulhamid Han boxes, the 500-metre Neptun Alpha berth, and the Key Manhattan Adriatic wide berth are still live collision and CPA problems. 0168/26 does not shrink them. It does not light them. It does not add a wreck buoy. A passage plan that dropped the 10-nautical-mile receipt because “the weekly list looks like housekeeping” has under-read 0160/26, 0132/26 and 0122/26. Abdulhamid Han’s 272059 UTC 27 November cancel is the nearest of those three clocks; it is not this week. Key Manhattan’s 202359 UTC 20 November cancel is closer. Yavuz and Fatih run into 2027.
Charterers and P&I asking whether “the Black Sea NAVAREA has gone quiet” will not be answered by group 44. The coordinator has not printed a new Black Sea wreck this week and has not withdrawn the mine, war-risk, Ukrainian-route or drilling watches. What went quiet on this wrapper is a completed Western Mediterranean firing box. What remains noisy is the same Black Sea industrial and conflict set, plus the Bulgarian coastal debris field that this list does not carry. Sightings of mines, mine-like objects, unlit hulls, or drifting tanks and containers still go to the coastal authority that owns the water — MRCC Constanta, MRCC Varna / VTMIS, the Ukrainian coastal coordinator, or the Turkish authority — and to the company security officer. Logging 0168/26 is not a substitute for a sighting report, and it is not a substitute for 775/26.
Keep the dedicated files on their own lines. 784/26 remains this morning’s dedicated Ahtopol tank. 779/26 remains Monday morning’s dedicated Burgas four-container watch. 768/26 remains Contship Jet. 766/26 remains Khoryv. 775/26, 776/26 and 777/26 remain the two-hour e-mail, the Galata diving box that is open 030600–051430 UTC 3–5 November, and cutter 331 in Burgas Bay 030615–061600 UTC 3–6 November. 414/26 and 424/26 remain the November Pakistan firing files on NAVAREA IX. Do not recast 3 November afternoon as a NAVAREA III wreck, as a Bulgarian object promoted to SafetyNet, or as a clean-sheet Black Sea.
What Operators Should Note
- Log 0168/26 as weekly group 44, not as a new wreck and not as a Black Sea all-clear. Official NAVAREA III 0168/26. In force 030600 UTC 3 November 2026. Weekly group 44. 2022:0092, 0122, 0124. 2024:0034, 0113. 2026:0036, 0086, 0122, 0132, 0137, 0160, 0168. SafetyNet and SafetyCast at 1200 UTC and 2359 UTC only for warnings less than 42 days old. Full texts on the Spanish Hydrographic Institute NAVAREA page. New alerts also in weekly Notices to Mariners, section 5. Cancel 092359 UTC 9 November 2026. Replace 0167/26, weekly group 43, which self-cancelled at 022359 UTC 2 November.
- Treat 0100/26 as the only 2026 number that left the wrapper. 0100/26 was a Western Mediterranean drifting-target firing box, 29–30 October, already self-cancelled at 310100 UTC 31 October. Its drop is housekeeping, not a Mediterranean security change and not a Black Sea cancellation. Do not delete 0122/26, 0132/26, 0137/26, 0160/26, 0086/26 or 0036/26 because 0100/26 came off the list.
- Keep the Black Sea rig and platform watches at their printed berths. Yavuz 0160/26: 10 nautical miles, 42-48.95N 031-08.55E and three other corners, through 032059 UTC 3 January 2027, IMO 9503768. Fatih 0132/26: 10 nautical miles, 42-08.43N 030-11.00E and three other corners, through 232359 UTC 23 March 2027, IMO 9503770. Abdulhamid Han 0122/26: 10 nautical miles, 43-05.03N 031-36.52E and three other corners, through 272059 UTC 27 November 2026, IMO 9705093. Neptun Alpha 0137/26: 44-02.85N 030-35.25E, 500 metres. Key Manhattan 0086/26: 44-05.12N 013-45.27E, Adriatic, through 202359 UTC 20 November. Sea Guardian 0036/26 remains voluntary Mediterranean reporting.
- Do not treat silence on SafetyNet as cancellation of the 2022 and 2024 series. 2022:0092, 0122, 0124 and 2024:0034, 0113 remain in force and are older than 42 days, so they are not in the twice-daily satellite broadcast. Pull the mine-danger, war-risk, Ukrainian-route and NAVTEX texts from the coordinator’s website or the weekly Notices. 2024:0034 still constrains Ukrainian port entry and exit to 0200–1700 UTC daily until further notice.
- Do not promote Bulgarian coastal NAVWARNs onto this list. Dedicated 768/26 Contship Jet, dedicated 766/26 Khoryv, dedicated 779/26 Burgas four-container watch, dedicated 784/26 Ahtopol tank, and wrap 786/26, 787/26 and 788/26 are not 0168/26 numbers. They remain hs-navy.mod.bg / Varna Radio products. 775/26 remains the two-hour territorial-sea e-mail. 776/26 remains the Galata diving prohibition through 051430 UTC 5 November. 777/26 remains cutter 331 through 061600 UTC 6 November. Official English on hs-navy.mod.bg had still not taken 784–788 as of this morning’s dedicated 784/26 file.
- Watch the 9 November cancel, not a Hormuz product. 0168/26 kills itself at 092359 UTC 9 November unless weekly group 45 replaces it. This is not NAVAREA IX 423/26, not 424/26, not 427/26, not 193-26, not 194-26, not Update 111, and not IMO 126. Sightings still go to the coastal authority that owns the water and to the CSO. Watch a later NAVAREA III that adds a Black Sea wreck number, reinstates a firing box, or drops Yavuz, Fatih, Abdulhamid Han or Neptun Alpha — not a headline that group 44 closed the Black Sea.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining NAVAREA III 0168/26 against last week’s 0167/26 and against this morning’s dedicated NAVWARN 784/26 so operators can treat Tuesday’s tape as a numbered weekly in-force list, not as a new wreck, a SafetyNet pickup of the Ahtopol tank, or a completed Black Sea all-clear.
