Port State Control - MARPOL Annex V

02 Dec 13 - 13:55

BMA Technical Alert No. 13-09

The Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) has issued Technical Alert No. 13-09 regarding the New Amendments to MARPOL Annex V, which came into force on 1st January 2013.

The amendments to Annex V included revisions to the format of the Garbage Record Book, changes to the overboard disposal requirements
and introduction of new "Special Areas".

MARPOL Annex V related PSC detentions

Since the implementation of the revised MARPOL Annex V, five Bahamian ships have been detained by Port State Control (PSC) for deficiencies relating to contravention of MARPOL Annex V. Numerous non-detainable PSC deficiencies have also been imposed relating to contravention of MARPOL Annex V.

It has been noted that in the case of all of these detentions, the companies had incorporated changes into their Safety Management System to account for the amendments to MARPOL Annex V. Unfortunately the on board familiarisation and training of crew was not adequate and in one instance equipment for the disposal of food waste was defective.

Three detentions relate to the disposal of food waste in Special Areas without the prior use of a comminuter or grinder. If a vessel is not fitted with a comminuter or grinder, food waste must not be discharged overboard within Special Areas. In such cases food waste shall be retained on board to be disposed of ashore, or in accordance with MARPOL Annex V requirements once the vessel has left the Special Area.

Special Areas are defined in MARPOL Annex V and include Mediterranean Sea area, Baltic Sea area, Black Sea area, Red Sea area, Gulfs area, North Sea area, Antarctic area and the Wider Caribbean Region.

Investigations into all five of the MARPOL Annex V related detentions have found that the detentions were fully avoidable through proper implementation of the company SMS and proper on board training of crew.

Ship owners and Managers are urged to ensure that suitable safety management procedures are in place and fully implemented on their ships to ensure compliance with MARPOL Annex V at all times. Furthermore, any shipboard equipment required for compliance with MARPOL Annex V is to be maintained in working order and the crew responsible for its use fully trained in its operation.

Find the BMA Technical Alert No. 13-09 here.

Manning Requirements on board Panama Canal Transiting Vessels

02 Dec 13 - 17:51

Panama Canal Advisory to Shipping No. A-33-2013

 

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has issued Advisory to Shipping No. A-33-2013 as a reminder that Panama Canal Authority requires that all vessels navigating in Panama Canal waters comply with the manning requirements in order to guarantee a safe and expeditious transit or docking maneuver at the ports located at both ends of the Canal. 

As established in the Maritime Regulations for the Operation of the Panama Canal, Chapter VI, Requirements Concerning the Crew, Section One, Vessels to be fully manned, Article 102, "A vessel navigating the waters of the Panama Canal shall be sufficiently manned to permit the safe handling of the vessel." In addition, "The crew must meet the standards set forth in the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978/95 (STCW)."

Article 103.1 (Annex) of the regulations requires transiting vessels to have sufficient seamen forward and aft to handle lines expeditiously during lockages, as well as when moored temporarily to lock walls or inside a lock chamber.

The Canal requires transiting vessels to provide, as a minimum, one (1) officer and two (2) seamen forward and aft respectively. They are expected to operate winches simultaneously in order to assist during mooring operations, and handling of locks locomotive wires.

Article 108, Chapter VIII of this regulation establishes sailing and collision prevention rules. Specifically Rule 4 establishes that,

"Every vessel shall at all times while underway in the Canal and adjacent waters, maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing, as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions, so as to make a full appraisal of the situation...The person acting as lookout shall have no other assigned duties, and shall report immediately all relevant and material information to the person in charge of the navigation of the vessel."

This is also a requirement of the STCW convention.

Non-compliance with these manning requirements may cause transit delays and the assessment of additional charges.

For more information, please read the: Panama Canal Authority Advisory to Shipping No. A-33-2013

New ICS Initiative to Maintain IMO Primacy on Shipping and CO2 Issues

02 Dec 13 - 17:38

ICS suggesting a possible way forward to further reduce CO2 emissions

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) - the worldwide trade association for shipowners - has made an important written submission to the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) suggesting a possible way forward with respect to complex discussions about additional global regulations to further reduce CO2 emissions from merchant ships.

In particular, ICS wishes to ensure the primacy of a global IMO framework for addressing the reduction of shipping's CO2 emissions in the face of proposals by the European Commission for unilateral regional regulations that will apply to international shipping trading to the EU.

In a carefully worded ‘political' paper, ICS has suggested that IMO Member States should initially focus on developing regulations for the mandatory reporting of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by internationally trading ships, deferring further discussions on how the information collected might subsequently be used to develop additional efficiency measures.

The latter include politically controversial proposals for developing tools to measure and benchmark the operational efficiency of individual ships, or even the development of Market Based Measures through which ships might be charged depending on how efficient they are deemed to be.

ICS hopes that if governments can agree to approach their work in distinct stages, IMO Member States can proceed towards the early adoption of mandatory CO2 monitoring and reporting measures that would be enforced worldwide.

ICS suggests this could be done relatively quickly, and might be acceptable to those governments that may not yet be ready to commit to more radical CO2 reduction measures for shipping such as efficiency indexing. ICS believes that focusing on monitoring and reporting measures now would not prejudice the positions of such countries at the high-level United Nations climate change talks on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, which are not scheduled to be completed by UNFCCC until 2015.

ICS argues that if IMO can make further progress one step at a time - the so called ‘three phase' approach which has already been proposed by the United States - this will have little negative impact on the industry's efforts to continue reducing CO2 emissions. CO2 emissions reductions are already very incentivised by the unprecedented high cost of marine fuel, which is expected to increase further due to the introduction of separate IMO requirements to burn low sulphur fuel. This is already the industry's largest variable operating cost, typically now amounting, over a ship's life, to about three times the capital cost of the ship itself.

"The recent impasse at IMO on making further progress is due to difficulties unconnected with shipping and imported from the UNFCCC" explained ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe. "However, IMO is now confronted by the danger of unilateral action by the European Union which is already considering a draft Regulation on monitoring and reporting of ships' emissions which risks destroying the possibility of a global approach towards shipping and CO2."

ICS's main objection to the draft EU Regulation (as currently proposed by the European Commission) is not so much with the objective as with the timing and the level of detail which it contains. If the EU measures on monitoring and reporting ships' CO2 emissions are adopted in advance of IMO developing its own global measure, it may be impossible to have a global regime that will be compatible with the EU approach. "Unless the EU expects the rest of the world to follow its unilateral approach to the letter?" said Mr Hinchliffe.

If there is no uniform global regime on monitoring and reporting of CO2 emissions from ships it is difficult to see how IMO can develop other global measures on CO2 for shipping. "Quite a lot is therefore at stake" said Mr Hinchliffe.

The ICS submission, which has involved several weeks of negotiations between ICS member national shipowners' associations, is therefore intended to suggest a possible way forward so that IMO can demonstrate that it is indeed making progress to ensure that a global approach is maintained towards this critically important issue.

"We are a global industry requiring global rules," said Mr Hinchliffe. "Otherwise we have chaos and inefficiency."

Source: ICS