Tim Wilkins News

At gmec, the global maritime environmental congress (gmec) during SMM in Hamburg, high-profile business and science experts discussed how the global shipping industry can achieve the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) environmental goals while continuing to provide its services at competitive prices.“We are at the beginning of a new chapter in the history of shipping,” said Tian-Bing Huang, Deputy Director - Marine Environment Division at the IMO, in his opening keynote.There is no question that the shipping sector is facing huge challenges…

Piracy, armed attacks on ships in Asia at highest since 2006. Asia accounted for three-quarters of global maritime piracy last year after a surge in tanker hijackings helped to fuel a 22 percent jump in armed robbery and pirate attacks on ships in the region. There were 183 actual and attempted piracy and robbery of ships in Asian waters last year, against 150 in 2013, a intergovernmental anti-piracy group told shipping industry and law enforcement personnel on Wednesday. This put Asia's share of the total at 75 percent, after the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) released its global report for 2014 showing there were 245 actual and attempted acts of piracy worldwide last year. In 2013, piracy in Asia accounted for less than 60 percent of the total.

Intertanko welcomes the agreement reached this week by the IMO’s Member States in revising the implementation schedule for the Ballast Water Management Convention and urges all Governments to adhere to this new schedule. The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) governing body, the Assembly, adopted a Resolution  in London that pins the application dates of the Ballast Water Management Convention to the entry into force date. This in effect makes all vessels constructed before the entry into force date ‘existing’ vessels, and allows for the installation of a ballast water management system (BWMS) on such vessels at the first renewal survey following entry into force. At present 38 countries representing 30.3% of the world’s registered tonnage have ratified the Convention.

In line with the Intertanko-led joint proposal last year, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has agreed to a rescheduling of the International Ballast Water Management Convention implementation dates, which will smooth the installation scheduling for ships installing ballast water management systems (BWMS), a trial period for port state control and new guidance on BWMS type approvals. At its 65th session, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 65) of IMO approved a draft Assembly resolution which recommends that ships not be required to install a BWMS until its first renewal survey after entry into force of the BWM Convention.

Oil tankers get a lot of bad press, but shipping causes only a small amount of marine pollution, maritime experts said. "Shipping is less polluting than most other transport modes. It is responsible for only some 12 percent of marine pollution," Mats Lindau, quality manager of marine insurer the Swedish Club said. Although land sources from polluted rivers are the cause of most pollution, he said, public perceptions of shipping remain negative. Tim Wilkins, a marine biologist at tanker owners organization Intertanko, said 62 percent of oil pollution at sea came from industrial waste. About three percent resulted from tanker accidents, while another seven percent was caused by loading and other operations.