Port State Control Authorities to Launch Ship Stability Campaign Targeting 10,000 Inspections

Port State Control authorities are preparing an inspection campaign targeting ship stability.

The 3-month inspection campaign is being launched by the Tokyo and Paris MoU on Port State Control and will commence September 1, 2021. The campaign will examine specific areas related to stability in conjunction with regular Port State Control inspections.

Port State Control Officers will use a pre-defined questionnaire to assess that information and equipment provided complies with the relevant conventions, that the master and officers are familiar with operations relating to stability and that equipment is properly maintained and functioning. If deficiencies are found, actions by the port State may vary from recording a deficiency and instructing the master to rectify it within a certain period of time to detaining the ship until the serious deficiencies have been rectified.

The Tokyo and Paris MoU have set a target of 10,000 inspections over the course of the campaign, and the findings will be analyzed for presentation to government bodies for submission to the International Maritime Organization.

Specifically, the campaign will seek to confirm that the ship’s crew are familiar with assessing the actual stability condition on completion of cargo operations before departure of the ship and on all stages of the voyage; create awareness among the ship’s crew and owners about the importance of calculating the actual stability condition of the ship on completion of cargo operations and before departure of the ship; and verify that the ship complies with intact stability requirements (and damage stability requirements, if applicable) under the relevant IMO instruments.

Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MOU) currently consists of 27 member countries, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Tokyo MOU now has 21 full members, including Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Fiji, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Thailand, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

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