CURRENTS………

CURRENTS………

24 December 2019

South Shields wins highest honour
South Shields Marine School’s innovations in advanced 3D modelling in naval architecture has secured it the UK’s highest education honour: the Queen’s Anniversary Prize.

The marine school, part of Tyne Coast College in NE England, won the further and higher education award for its expertise in creating high-tech under and above water digital scenarios that allow naval architects to design implement multi-million-pound projects.

The judges were impressed by its work on a key sea-based engineering project supporting Kazakhstan’s state oil company Tengizchevroil (TCO). A team from the school helped TCO develop a port and waterway on the Caspian Sea to serve the major expansion of the giant Tengiz oilfield.

Awarded every two years, the Anniversary Prize recognises outstanding work by colleges and universities which deliver real benefit through education and training.

Maiden voyage blessed

Liverpool Seafarers Centre arranged a special service to commemorate the MV Atlantic Prism’s maiden voyage to Western Europe. Fr Dominic Curran, parish priest at Our Lady Star of the Sea RC Church in Seaforth, celebrated mass onboard the bulk carrier and conducted a blessing of the bridge and engine control room.

Talking the same language

A new project funded by the European Commission (EC) will improve seafarers’ understanding
of maritime English to reduce the number of onboard accidents caused by poor communication.

Coordinated by shipping and logistics company LAM France, in conjunction with the EC’s Erasmus education scheme, the Practical and Communication Based Maritime English pilot project, or Prac-Mareng for short, was launched in France on 22 November 2019.

Development of the e-learning course will take two years with the effective training courses in Marseilles beginning in 2021.

Some 40% of accidents are linked to inadequate understanding between seafarers onboard the same ship and unsatisfactory standards of communication between crews and land.

MCA updates guidance

The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has updated its Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seafarers to a 2019 edition.

The Code provides guidance on safe working practices for many situations that commonly arise on ships. It is intended as a guide to all crew regardless of rank or role. It is not intended to supersede or amend safety regulation. It also covers onshore staff responsible for safety, according to the MCA.

It is the duty of shipowners and employers to protect the health and safety of seafarers onboard and others so far as is reasonably practicable.

Safety standards questioned

Dive boat Conception was exempt from some US Coast Guard safety rules to help passengers escape in an emergency, according to the Los Angeles Times. Thirty-four people sleeping in stacked bunks below the waterline died in a 2 September 2019 fire aboard the boat. The Times found Conception was one of several hundred passenger vessels built pre-1996 with exemptions from some safety standards. Newer rules require vessels to have an escape hatch 32 inches wide and illuminated exit signs. Conception, built in 1981, had 26-inch escape hatches. Exit signs onboard were not illuminated.

Coastal pollution

Brazil has claimed that Greek-flagged tanker Bouboulina, owned by Greek company Delta Tankers Ltd, spilled thousands of barrels of oil 700km

off Brazil’s coast as it travelled from Venezuela to Malaysia. Molecular analysis of the oil by Brazil’s state-
run company Petrobras showed the crude oil spilled did not originate in the country, it said. The spill was first detected on 2 September 2019. An AFP report on Saturday 23 November 2019 said it had spread as far as Rio de Janeiro state. Delta Tankers Ltd denied the claims.

Campaign for suffering master

The US MM&P union is calling on all union members to help achieve a fair hearing for Captain Andrzej Lasota, master of the Cyprus-flagged general cargoship UBC Savannah, who has been under arrest in Mexico since August 2019. The charge against him is negligence for ‘failing to be aware’ that 240 kilograms of cocaine had been buried in the ship’s hold under thousands of tons of coal. Capt Lasota is said to be suffering from severe stress and several serious ailments. Prosecutors are demanding a sentence of up to 20 years in jail. See tinyurl. com/LasotaPetition

World Cup cruise

Qatar is to charter two cruise ships from MSC Cruises to operate as floating hotels during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. MSC Poesia and MSC Europa, which is currently under construction, will be berthed in Doha port, Qatar, with views of the West Bay. The two vessels will provide a combined 4,000 cabins for fans attending the tournament, which runs from 21 November to 18 December.

Mercy Ships seeks crew

Mercy Ships is seeking professional seafarers to join its volunteer network that delivers free healthcare to people in desperate need. Its hospital ship provides lifesaving surgeries to sub-Saharan Africa. ali.edwards@mercyships.org

Take part: STCW surveys

The Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) has launched two surveys, one for engineering officers and another for navigation and deck crew, as part of the MCA’s review of Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping convention (STCW).

The surveys ask about current STCW mandatory training requirements and their importance for today’s seafarers.

The MCA says it wants to ensure that seafarers can receive and maintain the ‘level of knowledge, understanding, professional competence and performance standard suitable and relevant

to today’s industry and ever improving navigating/technical equipment needs’.

The surveys can be found at: • www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/ ABHN8 (engineering survey) • www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/XF0LW (deck/navigation survey) Nautilus technical and professional officer David Appleton urged all seafarers to take part in the surveys, as the proposed review of STCW has the potential to affect all current and future maritime professionals and it is vital their voices are heard.

No to paper charts  

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Coast Survey will phase out the production of paper nautical charts over the next five years. It will improve the level of detail on its Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs). The International Maritime Organization (IMO) now requires all large commercial vessels on international voyages use electronic charts. In 2016, the US Coast Guard started allowing commercial vessels on domestic voyages to use ENCs instead of paper charts.

Shipping part of ‘Green Deal’ The European Commission will introduce emissions trading for shipping, it was announced last month. EC president Ursula von der Leyen promised the UN climate conference in Madrid to make Europe the first climate neutral continent by 2050 with a ‘European Green Deal’. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that a shipping carbon tax of $75 per tonne of CO2 in 2030, and $150 in 2040 would reduce shipping CO2 emissions by nearly 15% and 25% respectively.

IMO clamps down on 300 ships linked to ‘rogue’ flags

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is acting to combat ‘rogue’ national flag registries that operate without the knowledge of the governments they claim to represent.

Recent reports show 73 vessels are unlawfully flying the flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 91 are illegally registered under the Fiji flag and 150 are unlawfully registered with the Federated States of Micronesia, although its law does not allow international vessels to join its national registry.

The IMO, in co-operation with the UN Security Council, plans to develop a

comprehensive searchable database of registries that would show vessels that are subject to UN Security Council Resolutions.

The database will be publicly accessible
on the IMO’s Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS). It will contain the names and contact details of each national governmental body or authorised delegated entity in charge of vessel registration and include information regarding countries that do not operate a ship registry, be it domestic or international.

The work is expected to be completed by 2021.

US court convicts master of MARPOL violations

The US legal firm Winston & Strawn has described the prosecution in August 2019 of the master and
two officers from the tanker Ocean Princess as ‘a clear warning’ that the new IMO 2020 rules will be rigorously enforced.

The case, which was brought after a US Coast Guard inspection of the ship revealed discrepancies in bunker delivery records ‒ was the first in which the US Department
of Justice brought charges arising from a violation of MARPOL Annex VI regulations.

‘This case is another example, as
if yet another one is needed, of how easily otherwise good companies and seafarers can get themselves into serious trouble by neglecting the strict requirements of MARPOL and its required recordkeeping,’ the law firm commented.

‘The master, an 80-year-old veteran seafarer with almost 45 years’ sailing as a master, stated in his pre-sentencing submission that he simply followed the practice he found onboard. But by failing to stop a practice he knew, or should have known, was wrong, he ended his career with a criminal conviction, following a period of 408 days of detention on St Croix,’ it pointed out.

‘Times have changed significantly since the Ocean Princess’s master first commanded a vessel in 1975, and they will continue to change,’ Winston & Strawn concluded. ‘This case serves as a clear warning to internationally trading vessels in advance of the
IMO 2020 start date that the new regulations governing marine fuel standards are likely to be enforced just as strongly as the well-established laws governing oil discharges.’

 (With thanks to the Nautilus Telegraph)