UK P&I Club issues guidance when travelling through West Africa
Practical tips on how to avoid incidents with West African pirates The UK P&I Club issued a practical guidance in relation to piracy in West Africa.Stuart Edmonston, Head of Loss Prevention, says: We have seen a sizable shift in pirate activity, from Somali to West Africa, and are witnessing an increase in incidents particularly offshore Nigeria.The UK Club provides practical tips on how to avoid incidents with West African pirates:The ship should be operating at a heightened state of security throughout, including additional watch-keeping, roving patrols and fire hoses rigged at the railings; outside doors of the accommodation closed and locked from the inside and temporary barriers erected around the outside stairwells risk of attack is particularly high when the ship is at anchor or is drifting off a port e.g. close to pilot station or when carrying out Ship-to-Ship (STS) transfer operations.For the purposes of identifying suitable measures of prevention, mitigation and recovery in case of piracy, it is imperative that a ship and voyage-specific risk assessment is performed well in advance as recommended in Section 3 of the Best Management Practices Volume 4 (BMP4).Limit the use of lighting at night and reduce the power or turn off the ...
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