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IFSMA attended two meetings at IMO this month: The 54th Technical Co-operation Committee and the 92nd session of the Council.
At the Council Meeting of IMO the NGOs may attend but have no voice, so we are there to observe the proceedings. The Council in general confirms the resolutions made by the committees during the previous six months. The main concern from IFSMA’s point of view was the confirmation that the Shipmaster may be appointed as the ship security officer, - a view that we do not believe is appropriate.
Perhaps the most interesting development was the Council’s support for the IMO Secretary General’s initiative on keeping strategic shipping lanes open. It was reported that the IMO Secretariat had commenced researching into the location of where those strategic shipping lanes are most at risk. It is the intention to discuss with the littoral states involved appropriate pro-active ways to protect the lanes in the interests of safety, security, the global economy and environmental protection.
At the Technical Co-operation Committee, a number of concerns were raised on the support that was needed to train officers in developing nations to administer the ISPS code, especially in the responsibilities relating to port facilities. This raised the issue of financing such schemes and one possibility is to place a charge on NGOs that have observer status with IMO. We will be keeping a watchful eye on any developments on this subject.
In its role as the industry representative for the Diploma in Ship Superintendency, IFSMA attended a group of Ship Superintendency meetings over four days. A number of issues were discussed at length including concerns over the forthcoming implementation of the ISPS code.
A number of active superintendents also reported that there have been incidents of ships been forced by French Naval escort to deviate their voyage into Brest where the Master and crew were charged with releasing oil into the sea. There was no evidence of the ships doing this, although aerial photographs presented to the court by the authorities showed signs of an oil slick both astern and ahead of the ship. I will let you draw your own conclusions.
Finally, we have started discussing the future of the next Command Seminar which is due in 2006. We believe it is important to keep the four supporting groups together, i.e. IFSMA, The Nautical Institute, Trinity House and the Honourable Company of Master Mariners. However we all agree that London is not the best venue. We would like to see new regional interest flourish and would consider India (Mumbai), Philippines, Russia (St. Petersburg), Americas and Caribbean etc. Any comments on this would be more than welcome.
Rodger MacDonald
Secretary General
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