Substandard Shipping Discussed in St. Petersburg

INTERTANKO's Managing Director, Peter Swift participated as a speaker and panelist in the 4th International "Substandard Shipping - Solution Through Partnership" seminar held this week in St. Petersburg. The seminar, sponsored by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, had as its theme "Implementation - Key Factor of Maritime Safety and Pollution Prevention". Organisations represented included the IMO, the EC, international shipowner associations and insurers, regional and international maritime registrations, shipowners and academics. Throughout the two days of meetings much attention was paid to thefailure of many states to ratify and/or implement Marpol and other key legislation, the shortcomings and weaknesses of certain flag states, with calls for greater uniformity and harmonisation in interpretation and application of most international and local legislation. Other topics given substantial coverage included proposals to improve accidentinvestigation - possibly through an independent IMO entity - the merits and demerits of determining white and black lists for flag states, recognition of the importance of the "human factor" and the intention of various organisations to start monitoring compliance with ILO and related legislation. (Source: INTERTANKO News) Web link: Copies of the presentations will be available shortly on the Russian Register's website: www.rs-head.spb.ru