Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment (DE), 53rd session: 22 – 26 February 2010
Replacing unsafe lifeboat release mechanisms – guidelines agreed by Sub-Committee
Draft guidelines to ensure release mechanisms for lifeboats are replaced with those complying with new, stricter safety standards have been agreed by IMO’s Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment (DE), 53rd session, in order to reduce the number of accidents involving lifeboats, particularly those which have occurred during drills or inspection.
The draft Guidelines for evaluation and replacement of lifeboat on-load release mechanisms will be submitted to the Maritime Safety Committee in May (MSC 87) for approval, alongside the anticipated adoption of amendments to the International Life-Saving Appliances (LSA) Code and the Recommendation on testing of LSA, which require safer design of on-load release mechanisms, as well as a related draft amendment to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), chapter III Life-saving appliances, which will require lifeboat on-load release mechanisms not complying with the new LSA Code requirements to be replaced no later than the next scheduled dry-docking of the ship following entry into force of the SOLAS amendments. [Continue Reading →]
Incidents involving unfair treatment of seafarers continue to happen worldwide, and BIMCO is maintaining its focus on this area to try and improve the situation both for seafarers and the shipping industry in general. A series of three consecutive articles mark the International Maritime Organization’s “Year of the Seafarer” by focusing on general trends, implications for seafarers, and the international legislative perspective and future outlook
The year 2010 has been designated as the “Year of the Seafarer” by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to give the organisation and the international maritime community at large the opportunity to pay tribute to the world’s seafarers for their unique contribution to society and in recognition of the risks they shoulder in the execution of their duties in an often hostile environment. BIMCO attributes much importance to the human element of shipping and considers that IMO’s decision will further support global measures aimed at safeguarding seafarers and recognize their work. The fact, however, that a number of maritime incidents in recent years continue to show examples of unfair treatment of seafarers – and perhaps even more significantly that these incidents appear to demonstrate a drifting towards a stricter liability regime – underlines the importance of maintaining this issue high on the agenda.
Every year, the International Maritime Organization chooses a theme for its World Maritime Day, which is generally celebrated during the last week in September. In 2009, the IMO chose “Climate Change” as the theme. This year, 2010, will be named “Year of the Seafarer”. In a message posted to their website, the IMO states:
The International Maritime Organization has decided to dedicate next year to you by choosing, as the theme for World Maritime Day, “2010: Year of the Seafarer”. Our intention is to pay tribute to you, the world’s 1.5 million seafarers – men and women from all over the globe – for the unique, and all too often over-looked, contribution you make to the wellbeing of all of us….
At IMO, we are ever-conscious of the important role you play in helping us achieve safe, secure and efficient shipping on clean oceans – the goals that we, as the United Nations specialized agency charged with the regulation of international shipping and as a member of the global maritime community, have set ourselves.
And so, we will celebrate next year’s World Maritime Day theme with much pride in your contribution to our objectives, to the facilitation of more than 90% of the world’s trade, and to sustainable human development.
You can read the full message from the IMO to the world’s seafarers, HERE.
This video comes via Ben Strong of Amver live from the World Maritime Day Parelle Event which the USCG is currently hosting in the great city of New York. Ben writes to remind us that you can follow the days event on Twitter using hashtag #wmdpe. Thanks for keeping us informed, Ben – You look cold!
The U.S. Coast Guard is scheduled to host the 2009 International Maritime Organization World Maritime Day parallel event, Friday (October 16) at 62 Chelsea Piers, New York, to focus attention on the importance of shipping safety, maritime security and the marine environment.
“We are honored to host the 2009 International Maritime Organization World Maritime Day parallel event,” said Adm. Thad Allen, Commandant of the U.S Coast Guard. “The Parallel Event is an opportunity for the maritime community to come together with the public to celebrate the contributions of the maritime industry as well as discuss and promote ways in which we can address areas important to us all.”
“The Coast Guard is working diligently with the IMO and industry partners to examine opportunities to reduce our impact on the environment,” said Allen. “With a goal of creating a collaborative venue to discuss these issues and display current advances to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the parallel event will focus on how the maritime community is responding to our changing environment.”
Other ports throughout the United States are scheduled to host simultaneous events within their ports.
Most mariners can tell you the significance of a ship’s IMO number but few know how the number is chosen. One of the guys mathematicians over at koti.mbnet.fi thinks he’s figured it out: [Continue Reading →]
This Monday, an ad hoc diplomatic conference will begin in Hong Kong that aims to make the ship breaking industry safer for its workers and for the environment by considering for adoption the International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. During the five day meeting, countries are expected to agree on measures that require new ships to limit the amounts of hazardous materials they’re built with and require older ships to be broken down in yards that meet certain environmental standards. [Continue Reading →]
Fellow blogger D. Peter Boucher of Nautical Log brings us a post regarding the controversial anti-whaling vessel MSSteve Irwin. The Nautical Log gives these opinions on the MS Steve Irwin in their post titled “A Most Dangerous Precedent” [Continue Reading →]
The 2008 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea has been presented to a Brazilian seafarer for his heroic actions in saving fellow crew members from an explosive fire on a ship.
Mr. Rodolpho Fonseca da Silva Rigueira, of the drill ship Noble Roger Eason, was nominated by the Government of Brazil for his decisive, selfless action in rescuing six fellow crew members from a catastrophic fire which burst out on the vessel. The fire originated from an explosion, causing imminent risk to the lives of crew members in its vicinity; yet, instead of evacuating the area, Mr. Rigueira repeatedly faced the fire and very high temperatures to save his colleagues, at severe risk to his own life.
Accepting the Award, Mr. Rigueira said that it had “great meaning to my country and, particularly, myself. Words could not possibly convey the honor that I feel, or express the depth of my gratitude to you today. I am proud and honored and very deeply grateful.” [Continue Reading →]
Besides using our Discoverer page of course, we use Google Alerts to stay on top of the news. Well this week, gCaptain has had an influx of emails, phone calls, questions and visitors;) interested in what is going on with piracy in and around the Gulf of Aden. So many in fact, we just can’t keep up. So rather than regurgitating our Google alerts, we are just going to run through some key events that have happened in the past week and provide you with links to reputable news sources.
So that is this week’s headlines in a nutshell (small nutshell). If anyone else knows of anything we might have missed, leave the links in the comments.
(Sorry, related wordpress links removed due to spamy nature)
Every year, the 
gCaptain On Twitter
gCaptain On Facebook
gCaptain On LinkedIn