CIC ON REQUIREMENTS FOR PREVENTING MARINE POLLUTION
[25.01.2006]
CIC ON REQUIREMENTS FOR PREVENTING MARINE POLLUTION
The 22 Maritime Authorities (EU Members plus Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Norway and the Russian Federation) of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control will start a concentrated inspection campaign focussing on how requirements for preventing marine pollution from ships (MARPOL73/78, Annex 1) have been implemented. The inspection campaign will last 3 months, ending on 30 April 2006.
In practice the concentrated inspection campaign will mean that during every port State control inspection within the Paris MOU region, the oil filtering equipment and record keeping shall be verified in more detail for compliance with the international standards.
This campaign will be carried out in parallel with the Tokyo MOU on Port State Control.
The inspections shall be mainly focussed on the equipment located in the engine room on board.
Inspections in the past have indicated that illegal by-passes of the oil filtering system and illegal overboard connections from sludge tanks have been found on various occasions. On many occasions the oil record books were not properly kept. In 2004 a total of 3646 deficiencies were found during inspections.
During the campaign Port State Control Officers shall use a list of 13 selected items of inspection.
If deficiencies are found, the Port State Control Officer will conduct an in depth investigation into other aspects of the MARPOL area, including operational performance by the responsible crew.
When deficiencies are found, sanctions by the port State may vary from recording the deficiency and instructing the master to rectify within 14 days to the detention of the ship until all deficiencies have been rectified.
In case of detention, the ship could face the risk of further inspections in other Paris MOU ports and publication in the monthly list of detentions issued by the Secretariat of the Paris MOU.
It is expected that approximately 4500 inspections will be carried out during the CIC.
All inspections will be inserted in the SIRENAC database of the Paris MOU and will be recorded on an evaluation form. The results of the campaign shall be analysed later this year and will be submitted to the Committee of the Paris MOU.
For 2007 a concentrated inspection campaign has been planned which will focus on the implementation of the International Safety Management System – 5 years after its global implementation.
_______________________________________________
Notes to editors:
Port State Control is a check on visiting foreign ships to see that they comply with international rules on safety, pollution prevention and seafarers living and working conditions. It is a means of enforcing compliance where the owner and flag State have failed in their responsibility to implement or ensure compliance. The port State can require defects to be put right, and detain the ship for this purpose if necessary. It is therefore also a port State’s defence against visiting substandard shipping.
Regional Port State Control was initiated in 1982 when fourteen European countries agreed to co-ordinate their port State inspection effort under a voluntary agreement know as the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MOU). Current membership includes 22 countries, with an increase 25 in the near future. The European Commission, although not a signatory to the Paris MOU, is also a member of the Committee.
At least once a year the inspections focus on a certain area of concern or when new requirements enter into force. In 2005 the concentrated inspection was aimed at implementation of GMDSS radio requirements on board.
The Paris MOU has been a blueprint for the introduction of regional regimes of port State control in the Asia Pacific Rim (Tokyo MOU), Latin America (Viña del Mar), the Mediterranean, Caribbean and other emerging regional port State control regimes. Canada and Russia are members of both the Paris MOU and the Tokyo MOU.
<< Back to News |