NRC & WCMRC RECIPROCAL ARRANGEMENT AGREEMENT

The traffic separation lanes in the Strait of Juan de Fuca Strait require all ships en route to Canadian or U.S. ports to navigate inbound predominately within U.S. waters and predominantly within Canadian waters when exiting the U.S. thereby necessitating vessels to comply with Canadian law when outbound, and ships entering the Strait bound for Canada to with Washington State law when inbound. As a consequence, these vessels are subject to securing response coverage in both jurisdictions.

In order allow vessels to avoid having to pay for response coverage for the jurisdiction in which they are only transiting but not calling on, National Response Corporation (NRC) and Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC) have entered into a Reciprocal Arrangement Agreement (Reciprocal Agreement) that provides an arrangement by which such vessels can comply the Canadian and Washington State response requirements, without having to pay fees in excess of those that would be payable to NRC (for vessels exiting from a Washington State call only), or to WCMRC (for vessels bound for a western Canadian destination only).

Under the Reciprocal Agreement, vessels that are both contracted with NRC for coverage under the NRC Covered Vessels Washington State Contingency Plan (NRC Plan) and enrolled with WCMRC which are transiting the Juan de Fuca Strait and calling on ports in either western Canada or the U.S., but not both, NRC and WCMRC each grant response coverage to these vessels, and to offer a modified form of arrangement (the “Juan de Fuca Arrangement”) to those ships satisfying the criteria for obtaining the Juan de Fuca Arrangement as follows:

a) If the ship’s destination was to the U.S. only:
(i) the destination must be in the State of Washington, and the ship must be owned and/or operator must have a contract in place for coverage under the NRC Covered Vessels Washington State Contingency Plan (NRC Plan).
(ii) the ship must be a “covered vessel” as defined under the Washington State law which includes commercial of 300 or more gross tons, including but not limited to cargo vessels and fishing vessels, tank vessels which are constructed or adapted to carry, or that carry, oil in bulk as cargo or cargo residue; and passenger vessels of 300 or more gross tons with a fuel capacity of at least 6,000 gallon carrying passengers for compensation.
(iii) the fees payable by the owner, operator or agent of the ship would be payable to NRC per the terms of the NRC contract.
(iv) the ship’s owner, operator or agent must prior to entering Canadian waters of the Juan de Fuca Strait, have executed and delivered to WCMRC or to the Chamber of Shipping of B.C. a standard from Juan de Fuca (Non-Bulk Oil) Membership Agreement or Juan de Fuca Ship (Bulk Oil) Membership Agreement.
b) If the ship’s destination was to Canada only:
(i) the destination must be in the Province of British Columbia, and the ship’s owner and/or operator must have a valid arrangement with WCMRC
(ii) the ship must be either a non-bulk oil ship or a bulk oil ship.
(iii) the registration fees payable by the ship’s owner, operator or agent to WCMRC in accordance with WCMRC’s standard form Ship (Non-Bulk Oil) Membership Agreement or Ship (Bulk Oil) Membership Agreement, and any bulk oil cargo fees that are payable a standard from Juan de Fuca (Non-Bulk Oil) Membership Agreement or Juan de Fuca Ship (Bulk Oil) Membership Agreement, and any bulk oil cargo fees.
(iv) the ship’s owner, operator or agent must prior to entering U.S. waters of the Juan de Fuca Strait, have executed and delivered to NRC the NRC Vessel Response Resources Agreement and the NRC Covered Vessels Washington State Contingency Plan Addendum.

The Reciprocal Arrangement is not applicable to vessels transiting the Juan de Fuca Strait and calling on both Canadian and U.S. ports.

WCMRC Contact Information

For information on the WCMRC registration process, see the Chamber of Shipping website at:

For questions or additional information, contact the Chamber of Shipping office at:

Email: operations@cosbc.ca,
Phone: 604-681-2351
Fax: 604-681-4364.

NRC Contact Information

Email: clientservices@nrcc.com,
Phone: 631.224.9141 then option 1 for Client Services.