The shipping industry does not need more regulation, but a more thorough understanding of the current regulations and a more efficient safety culture to implement the existing regulatory framework, especially when it comes to enclosed space entry, was a key message by shipping experts in the latest SAFETY4SEA Athens Forum.
In the following article, InterManager Secretary General, Captain Kuba Szymanski, discusses the problems associated with working in enclosed spaces onboard ships and considers what measures the industry needs to take to save lives.
InterManager conducted a survey focusing on the danger of enclosed spaces aboard vessels. InterManager published the results and the feedback of the survey to highlight the risks hiding in that sector of the shipping industry, while also alert the industry eradicate these risks.
Enclosed space fatalities continue, as shipping lacks a thorough understanding of the risks faced by today’s seafarers while shipping industry investigations encourage a ‘blame culture’, according to a study by shipmanagement trade association InterManager.
ISWAN, in partnership with InterManager, ICS, ICMA and ITF, issued a new booklet, entitled ‘Arrested and Detained Vessels, and Abandoned Seafarers’, providing guidance to welfare organisations dealing with incidents of seafarers being abandoned and vessels being arrested or detained.
ISWAN, ICS and InterManager launched a new guidance for shipping companies and manning agents, on dealing with situations involving missing seafarers. The guidance covers managing relationships onboard, actions that should be taken, and managing relationships with the families of seafarers who have gone missing.
InterManager, the international trade association for the shipmanagement sector, has launched a campaign to stimulate seafarers to think about safety issues when working in enclosed spaces and encourage them to identify and share with InterManager measures which they believe would reduce risks.
During the annual meeting of the trade body InterManager, shipowners discussed the challenges that maritime will face, as well as possible strategies to achieve environmental targets and adopt fast-paced technological advances. InterManager President Björn Jebsen said that this regulation could present significant challenges in relation to human health as well.
International shipping industry organisations have launched a new website to provide maritime security guidance to companies and mariners. The new website www.maritimeglobalsecurity.org provides security guidance, which the industry supplies, as well as links to useful maritime and military security resources.
On its interactive Ship Management Forum next month, the international ship managers’ body InterManager will focus on if the shipmanagement industry is ready for the new wave of blockchain and cryptocurrency technology that is taking the world by storm.
