A leading maritime company has launched a push to prevent hundreds of dangerous, unseaworthy ships from being detained at Australian ports. Australian Reef Pilots (ARP) has started providing ship safety audits at overseas ports to assess whether foreign ships bound for Australia are up to standard. ARP General Manager Alan Maffina said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) aimed to randomly inspect about 80% of vessels calling at Australian ports and would not hesitate to delay any that were not up to scratch. “195 foreign ships were detained in the year to May,” Maffina said. “Most were held for a few days but several were tied up for more than a week and one was kept idle for 47 days while its faults were fixed.