Maritime affairs

Maritime Affairs is an administrative department responsible, in particular, for coordinating government strategies relating to the sea and for monitoring French territorial waters and coastlines. It also plays a role in managing maritime and river pleasure boating. This administration, known as the Direction des Affaires Maritimes (DAM), is divided into decentralised sub-departments to ensure efficient coverage of French territory throughout the world.

Maritime administration and management date back to the 17th century. Under the impetus of Jean-Baptiste Colbert during the reign of Louis XIV, a first administrative service was created to register sailors serving on ships of the Royal Navy, the Service des Classes. It was renamed the Inscription Maritime during the French Revolution (1795) with a new additional role: the regulation and surveillance of French territorial waters. The Inscription Maritime became the Affaires Maritimes in 1967.

The Maritime Affairs department develops, coordinates, and implements maritime regulations, ensuring their compliance at national and local levels throughout French territory.

The Maritime Affairs department intervenes in:

• maritime safety and security through the surveillance of maritime navigation and signaling, search and rescue at sea, risk prevention and vessel pollution, and the coordination of maritime policing (fisheries policing, navigation policing, etc.)
• maritime and river recreational boating and water sports through the administrative management of navigation documents (navigation permits), registrations, and boat licenses, and by regulating water activities
• maritime professions and seafarers through the development and application of maritime labor law (regulation and working conditions), the social protection of seafarers (fishermen, navigating personnel, etc.), and their professional training
• maritime regulation and integrated maritime policy related to maritime activities (maritime transport, Merchant Navy, etc.)
• the administrative management and monitoring of the commercial fleet sailing under the French flag
• the protection of the marine environment and sustainable development and ecological initiatives related to fishing, aquaculture (marine farming), and marine energies
• ...

The Directorate of Maritime Affairs (DAM) is involved in many missions beyond recreational boating, the specifics of which we cannot detail here. Here, therefore, is the simplified organizational chart of the DAM relating to recreational boating.

The DAM is a branch of the DGITM (Directorate General for Infrastructure, Transport and the Sea) which operates under the aegis of the Ministry for Ecological and Inclusive Transition and the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities. The DAM is divided into decentralized services:

• in mainland France by the 4 Interregional Directorates of the Sea (DIRM) in Eastern English Channel and North Sea, North Atlantic and Western English Channel, South Atlantic, and Mediterranean
• in Overseas Territories (Directions de la Mer or DM) in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, and the Southern Indian Ocean (Reunion, Mayotte, French Southern and Antarctic Lands).

The DAM is also present in the Pacific in New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Tahiti, the Leeward Islands...

Replacing the port administrations called "Quartier des Affaires Maritimes" since 2010, each Interregional Directorate of the Sea is also divided into several Departmental Directorates of Territories and the Sea (DDTM), themselves subdivided into Delegations for the Sea and the Coast. These services are responsible for administrative procedures (navigation titles, registration of a recreational boat, recreational boat licenses) and public information for maritime and river navigation.

With the ban on sailing during the new lockdown (except for specific cases detailed in our news), boaters are stuck at the dock. This is the time to complete all your administrative procedures so you can get back on the water with peace of mind as soon as possible. Like Customs, the Maritime Affairs Offices remain open and operational, and our advisors are working full-time to meet all your needs: vessel registration, navigation permits, title modifications, etc. Benefit from our expertise, recognized by each Departmental Directorate of Territories and the Sea and each Delegation for the Sea and the Coast. By using Bateau-Immatriculation.com, the time it takes to obtain a navigation permit and register a recreational vessel is reduced.

Through our experience, we have found that 80% of applications suffer from processing delays due to missing documents and information, especially since many specific cases need to be examined. This results in time loss, endless exchanges with maritime administrations, difficulties reaching previous owners, etc. This is amplified by the Covid-19 crisis, as services are overwhelmed and understaffed. It is therefore essential to submit a perfect application right from the start! To avoid any administrative mishaps and extended delays, entrust us with your application. We handle your administrative process from A to Z, from the request to obtaining the document.