IFSMA attended three meetings at IMO this month:
- The 49th Sub-committee on Safety of Navigation
- The SUA Convention
- and the 31st session of the Facilitation Committee
At the Navigation Sub Committee, IFSMA was well represented by six delegates including IFSMA’s President and all participated in the plenary, the working groups and the drafting groups.
A number of issues were discussed and IFSMA strongly supported the Swedish request for clearer and stronger instructions on positioning of navigation lights. This follows the installation of Mast headlights offset far from the centre line to fit in with the owners’ design for a Ro-Ro vessel. OOWs in Sweden have reported that this gives a false impression of the aspect of a ship when approaching head on.
Other discussions were focussed on performance standards on Radar, the use of AIS information and ship borne navigational displays and some interesting arguments on the routeing of ships and ship reporting.
There were reports on the feasibility study of the carriage of Voyage data recorders on existing cargo ships. In general the working group agreed that simplified VDR (S-VDR) which took into account the important benefits of VDR but minimised the costs of installation should be acceptable to existing cargo ships.
The Suppression of Unlawful Acts (SUA) Convention primarily focuses around the legal issues and the meeting was involved mainly in tidying up the wording of the existing Convention to take account of recent developments,
At the Facilitation Committee, the Secretary General attended the plenary and participated in the drafting group to review and finalise the amendments to the FAL convention relating to measures and procedures for the treatment of persons rescued at sea: Facilitation aspects.
One of the key debates that particularly interested IFSMA was the problem of stowaways. It was noted that in 2002 there were 574 reported stowaways and in 2003 481 were recorded. The main problem for Ship Masters is that some countries absolutely refused to disembark stowaways even when they possessed valid travel documents to be repatriated.
The Secretary General IFSMA attended the World VTS Guide Board meeting on board HQS Wellington during the month. As a member of this Board (along with IALA, IHMA, IMPA, IAPH with support from IHO) IFSMA is able to provide input into the management of this important guide to ensure it meets the needs of Shipmasters. The most recent VTS systems to be added were Finland West Coast VTS and Turkish Straits VTS. (http://www.worldVTSguide.org).
Work is continuing on the submission to IMO on the fair treatment for seafarers guidelines.
Time is running out for members to comment on the next version of the IFSMA Policy Document. A copy may be downloaded from the IFSMA Website, the deadline for comments is 1st Septmber.2004.
Rodger MacDonald
Secretary General
