Tag: Polar Code

A chill on environmental protection as Arctic shipping heats up

Protection of the Arctic environment high on the IMO agenda

MSC 91 held in London, on 26-30 November 2012 The IMO's Committee on Maritime Safety (MSC) held its 91st session from Monday 26 through Friday 30 November 2012 under the Chairmanship of Mr Christian Breinholt (DENMARK) who, together with his Vice Chair (Captain Segar of SINGAPORE), were duty re-elected for a further year.Following a welcome address to participants by the Secretary General, UK made a statement on the ban of Falkland Islands hydrocarbon related vessels visiting Argentina and its unfair effect on ships' crews. Argentina responded that it has not violated its commitment and obeyed UNCLOS in addition to Port Regulations; this latter view was endorsed by Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.Three Working Groups were formed:(1) Goal-Based New Ship Construction Standards(2) Passenger Ship Safety(3) The scope of application of amendments to SOLAS and related codes and guidelines in an holistic mannerIn addition, a draft group gave 'Consideration and Adoption of Amendments to Mandatory Instruments' whilst a 'Capacity-Building Needs Analysis Group (ACAG)' also deliberated. The report of the Formal Safety Assessment Experts Group, which met during the week preceding MSC91, was also considered.So, a busy week lay in store and this was given further 'grist to ...

Polar Code to set standards for ship construction and operation in polar waters The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is developing a mandatory Polar Code in order to set standards for ship construction and operation in polar waters, according to INTERTANKO's Technical Director, Dragos Rauta, who was at IMO this week.The Polar Code will be based on an existing set of IMO Guidelines, however, developing statutory language for polar waters is proving to be a difficult project and a date for its completion is not easy to predict.The Polar Code will be structured as:a) Polar Ship Certification andb) Polar Ship Operational ManualAgreement has yet to be reached on how to interlink the provisions of the new Polar Code to other relevant IMO Conventions and regulations.With regard to ship construction, it is suggested that ships navigating in polar waters would fall into different categories depending on their ice-strengthening and ability to sail in ice-covered waters. Ships trading in polar waters with ice concentration >10% and at risk of contact with both first-year ice and multi-year ice, will be strengthened according to Polar Class Rules of IACS.It is proposed that the Polar Water Operation Manual (PWOM) will contain general and specific information on ...