It was the IMO Secretary-General’s initiative which gave us the IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea.
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There is apprehension that the grim news from Brussels, Berlin, Rome, Paris and Athens could lead to a weakening, partition or breakup of the Eurozone, and perhaps the European Union itself.
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There are many definitions of a “good” ship operator. “Somebody who does what is right, without regulatory pressure or mandatory provisions” might be as good a definition as you can find.
One of the real scandals which has disfigured marine safety for several years has been the terrible loss of life and serious injury that has occurred with accidents involving lifeboats and launching mechanisms, mostly involving the on-load release hooks which seemed such a good idea at the time. It took far too long for the industry to agree the mandatory guidelines for the release and retrieval systems now found in
MSC.1/Circ.1392; several years of fruitless arguing, during which time a lot more seafarers and others were killed and injured…
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You clearly neglect your cargo handling equipment at your peril, but it seems quite a lot of people do.
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As we all know the ISM Code was adopted by IMO in 1993. The Code was drafted as a self-contained document. However, its provisions were bought into force internationally when, at the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Conference in 1994, compliance with its provisions became mandatory under a new Chapter IX to the SOLAS Convention. The Code differs from other quality assurance systems in that it is mandatory; it has been amended over the years, and is generally incorporated in OPA ’90.
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In my last post I began looking at risk management and would like to elaborate further and see how this applies to shipping, the offshore oil industry, and particularly oil spills?
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Do you recognize the name Oswald Grübel? Mr. Grübel was until recently CEO of the Swiss Banking Group UBS.
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If I was a Somali pirate chief, or perhaps the Business Development Director of one of those gruesome gangs causing mayhem in world shipping circles, as we are informed they are now well organised along such formal lines, I would have annotated my 2011 wall chart with some enthusiasm last week. The Volvo Ocean round the world race started in Alicante on Saturday with its six yachts, all professionally crewed, en route to Cape Town.
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