In order to strengthen and improve the safety of navigation in waters under its jurisdiction and in accordance with Article 5 of the SOLAS Convention, Senegal has upgraded its equipment (aids to navigation: buoys , Lighthouses, security infrastructures) its Maritime Safety Service managed by the Lighthouses and Beacons Subdivision. The objective is to enable it to meet the safety and security needs of ships that frequent its waters, estuaries and ports. The Subdivision of Lighthouses and Beacons is a structure of the State whose management is entrusted to the Port Autonome of Dakar by a convention that dates from 1977.

NAUTICAL ACCESS AND BATHYMETRIC BEACONINGS

The Lighthouses and Beacons acquired a new multifunctional beacon equipped with a multibeam and a hydrographic star equipped with a single beam system that allowed it to carry out several activities including:

• The survey of the median and eastern Pole Mole 2 basins,
• The survey of the outer harbor of Dakar,
• The reconnaissance visit for the determination of the access channel of the quay of Rufisque (installation of buoys),
• The survey of the pier Dakar - Gorée (salt basin) for the purposes of the rehabilitation of wharf Alioune Sitoé Diatta,
• The hydrography of the Casamance River: from the mouth to the Port of Ziguinchor and the buoys,
• The hydrography of the Brèche de Saint-Louis for the determination of a channel in progress,
• The hydrography of the port's interior and exterior access channel.

AIDS TO NAVIGATION OR BEACONINGS

• Lighthouses and lighttowers: 3 landing lights at Saint-Louis (Gothie Mathie, Guet Ndar and Gandiole), Kayar and Fass Boye, Almadies, Gorée, PAD jet fires (North and South), Diockoul, Yenne and Mbour, Joal , Djogué, breasts and cap manual
• Ordinary buoys : (4 buoys), Saloum (150 buoys) and Casamance (40 buoys), of which more than a dozen Of floating buoys made of polyethylene.
• Light buoys: Dakar-Rade (Tacoma, Twelve, One, Resolved and Mbao), Mbour, landing (Saloum and Casamance), Lagoba, Casamance. 

APPROACHING DAKAR

On approaching Dakar, navigators are guided by fixed landmarks (beacon headlights, manual heading and Almadies) and a buoy system delimiting an obstruction zone and two incoming and outgoing rails.

These buoys delimit:

• Obstructions (sandbank (Mbour), cemetery (solved), obstruction zone (between Gorée and cape Manuel) and wrecks).
• The port access channel and the SAR / ICS anchorage point for hydrocarbons.