The Swedish Accident Investigation Authority published its report on the death of a casual labourer from oxygen deficiency when he entered an unventilated spiral ladder leading down to one of the cargo holds. The probable cause was a combination of being unaware of the risks, because of lack of training and experience in discharging coal.
Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport of Canada, announced that the country is providing funding over three years to the British Columbia Institute of Technology to deliver a program to increase access to marine training courses for women, Northerners, Inuit and Indigenous people through the Oceans Protection Plan. BCIT and Camosun will also cooperate with various industry partners, marine employers, and Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Building better training simulators for sailors on surface ships is a key initiative that the US Navy is carrying out. This comes as the Navy implements recommendations following the deadly USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald collisions, according to Adm. William Moran, vice chief of naval operations. Mr. Moran also stated his disappointment about the simulators that were used by the surface force, in comparison to what he was used to as a naval aviator.
The European Parliament voted on April 4 regarding the revision of Directive 2008/106/EC on the minimum level of training for seafarers. The revision gives emphasis on the level of transparency that should prevail in processing demands for the recognition of seafarers’ certificates of new third countries. Such a recognition will now stop to be automatic, as the decision to launch this process will have to be taken by the Commission by means of an implementing decision and on grounds of several criteria.
ABS Group launched Cultural Cause Analysis (CCA), a next-gen root cause analysis methodology and risk management tool which maps process safety incidents aiming to eliminate cultural hazards. It could be used as a way better understand the culture disease pathology that may be affecting a company and how best to return to good process safety health.
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) reinstated its commitment to collaborations with international institutions for sea time training of Nigerians under the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme. Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, expressed the organization’s determination to explore and use appropriate ways to make sure that Nigerian seafarers got the right exposure and training.
The Government of Hong Kong proposed to make a new regulation under the Merchant Shipping (Seafarers) Ordinance to include the latest seafarers’ training requirements as described in the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters of the International Maritime Organization into local legislation. Hong Kong has also proposed to amend the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Air Pollution) Regulation.
Marine Learning Systems, a provider of maritime training and assessment software solutions, collaborated with Carnival Corporation to develop an application for mariner skills assessment. SkillGrader aims to standardize Carnival Corporation’s training and assessment. After the assessment, SkillGrader automatically analyzes the data collected and provides a report on individual and team performance.
The latest Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) was jointly conducted from 1st September to 30th November 2018 by the Paris, Tokyo, India and Black Sea MoU, focusing on compliance with the MARPOL Annex VI. Namely, during these three months, the PSC Authorities checked eleven items as mentioned in the CIC questionnaire.
During the 2019 SMART4SEA Conference, Robert Kenworthy, CEO of GTMaritme, discussed the statistics and trends of data that they see across the vessels using their services. Namely, he offered a unique insight into the data and emails that are being transferred and highlighted the various areas that this data can become vulnerable to Cyberattack. Concluding, he offered advice on how these can be mitigated as best practice.
