Over the last five policy years, 2014 to 2018, 18% of all pollution incidents handled by Gard Club claims teams have been caused by bunker spills, with an average cost per incident in excess of USD 100,000. But what is the cause of these incidents?
As Gard informs, in a significant number of collisions, the club has found that the majority of mariners do not reduce speed to avoid a collision. However, it notes that in case there is a potential for collision, reducing speed can have many benefits.
Today, 14 November is World Diabetes Day. Gard’s Christina Tsouni, Claims Executive, Piraeus and Alice Jackson Amundsen, Vice President, Arendal, join in the effort to raise the awareness among their readers of the risks of the disease, particularly to seafarers, and recommendations for life-style changes that can reduce these risks.
Malware aims to damage files or entire computer systems, steal data, or disrupt networks. They can be viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, adware, backdoors, rootkits, and bots. To protect your systems against a malware, there are numerous inexpensive Antivirus software programs, but first and foremost one must know how malware spreads so they can avoid it in the first place.
Container fires may now be occurring on a weekly basis and in Gard’s experience most are associated with cargo misdeclaration. However just as with tackling the fire itself, tackling misdeclaration is a significant industry challenge. Thus, Mark Russell, Vice President, Head of Cargo Claims in London and Charmaine Chu, Claims Executive in Hong Kong discuss the severity of cargo misdeclaration and the impact it has in the shipping market.
In the following article, Capt. Siddharth Mahajan, Loss Prevention Executive Asia, Singapore, at the Gard P&I Club, discusses challenges associated with the use of scrubbers as one of the two most popular options for compliance with IMO 2020 and shares preventive recommendations for scrubber-related breakdowns.
According to IMO, exhaust gas scrubbers are a compliant method to reduce vessels’ sulphur emissions and ensuring compliance with MARPOL Annex VI. Yet, some coastal states and ports have implemented local regulations with stricter measures that either restrict or prohibit the discharge of washwater from open loop scrubbers or prohibit the use of scrubbers, according to Gard.
In order to protect ships from piracy attacks at Douala anchorage, Cameroon decided to supply armed guards, free of charge, that will stay on board a vessel for the duration of its stay at the anchorage. The new arrangement will limit the administrative delays that arise when completing an application for government armed guards on board.
While scrubbers are an attractive means of compliance with the IMO’s 2020 sulphur cap, equivalent to low-sulphur fuels, a recent surge in bans of open loop scrubbers in major ports worldwide seems to open new discussions, creating misconceptions surrounding the true environmental impact of these systems.
The Turkish Straits, consisting of the Istanbul and Çanakkale Straits and the Marmara Sea, linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, are considered one of the most strategically significant waterways of the world. However, because of the busy traffic with a considerable number of tankers carrying dangerous cargo in the Turkish Straits there are always considerable concerns for the safety of the public and the environment.
