§  80.1109   Distress, urgency, and safety communications.

   (a) Distress traffic consists of all messages relating to the immediate
   assistance required by the ship in distress, including search and
   rescue communications and on-scene communications. Distress traffic
   must as far as possible be on the frequencies contained in § 80.1077.

   (b) Urgency and safety communications include: navigational and
   meteorological warnings and urgent information; ship-to-ship safety
   navigation communications; ship reporting communications; support
   communications for search and rescue operations; other urgency and
   safety messages and communications relating to the navigation,
   movements and needs of ships and weather observation messages destined
   for an official meteorological service.

   (c) Intership navigation safety communications are those VHF
   radiotelephone communications conducted between ships for the purpose
   of contributing to the safe movement of ships. The frequency 156.650
   MHz is used for intership navigation safety communications (see
   § 80.1077).