News in brief November 09
NEWS IN BRIEF is a fresh offer from the Norwegian Maritime Officers’ Association. This monthly newsletter will give a summary of the most recent activities in our association and news of interest to English speaking members and seafarers on Norwegian ships. NEWS IN BRIEF will be distributed by e-mail as well as posted on our website www.sjooff.no. To subscribe, please e-mail oslo@sjooff.no
Manning level controversy in Norway
A new Ship Safety and Security Act was introduced in Norway in 2008, and more
recently, in July of this year, entirely new regulations concerning manning
levels on Norwegian ships were enacted. Even so, the Norwegian Maritime
Directorate recently approved reduced safety manning levels on a number of
ferries and high speed vessels operating along the Norwegian coast.
- Our view is that the Directorate has adopted decisions on the basis of
incomplete information and we have appealed in every case, Norwegian Maritime
Officers Association (NMOA) Deputy Director Ove R. Nielsen told News in Brief.
A number of newspapers and TV stations have carried critical reports on the
manning cases.
Insisting on three navigators
Short sea ships – which carry only two navigators and are in continuous
operation – are over-represented in accident statistics. The demand of
the NMOA is that vessels of this type should carry a minimum of three
navigators.
NMOA claims that mariners aboard these ships are heavily exposed to fatigue.
Norway staging a comeback in the cruise sector?
Norwegian authorities are working intensively to strengthen the Norwegian
International Ship Register (NIS). Following a meeting of leading cruise
operators in Miami earlier this autumn, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line are now
indicating that they are seriously considering a change of flag.
- Cruise ships flying the NIS flag will strengthen Norway’s
position as a seafaring nation, says NMOA’s director, Captain Hans
Sande.
IFSMA meeting in Norway
The Executive Council of the International Federation of Shipmasters’
Associations (IFSMA) met in the Norwegian city of Tønsberg recently. The
organisation was founded in 1975, Norway being one of the five founding
nations. The organisation now numbers 65 member states and has a membership of
15,000 shipmasters from all over the world.
The criminalisation of seafarers is the subject on which the organisation has
focused most attention in recent years.
ITF, InterManager and Norwegian unions unite to condemn Full City
decision
InterManager, the ITF and Norwegian seafarers’ trade unions have joined
to condemn what they are calling the worst case of seafarer victimisation since
the Hebei Spirit. According to the ITF, InterManager, the Norsk
Sjømannsforbund, the Norsk Sjøoffisersforbund, and Det norske
maskinistforbund, the treatment of two officers of the ship Full City, who were
arrested in Norway when it ran aground at the end of July spilling some of its
bunker fuel, is “legally and morally indefensible”. The two
men, Zong Aming and Qiland Lu, were expected to be allowed to return home to
China but in a surprise u-turn the appeal court reversed an earlier court
decision and altered their bail conditions to keep them in the country pending
a trial for negligence that is unlikely to be held until next year.
David Cockroft, ITF General Secretary, commented: “The criminalisation of
seafarers – the vilification of workers for accidents that may be beyond
their control – is one of the ugliest developments in shipping. We all
support the investigation of accidents, the learning of lessons from them and
the identification of blame where it is truly found to have played a part, but
this goes beyond that. Sadly, it appears that once again we are looking at a
knee-jerk response to an incident, which, more sadly still, is happening in the
country where you’d least expect it.”
Captain Hans Sande, Director of the Norsk Sjøoffisersforbund (Norwegian
Maritime Officers’ Association) explained: “There is a wealth of
maritime experience in Norway and we hope that some of it will find its way
into the judicial process. If that happens the court case will be dropped and
the normal maritime investigation processes will be free to take action
unfettered by political considerations or nods to public opinion. If common
sense prevails then the lessons of the grounding will be identified and
learned, and the cargoes that we all rely on to sustain our way of life in
every country in the world will travel that little bit more safely. If not we
will once again see, not just the criminalisation of these two men, but a new
generation of potential ship’s officers deciding that the job isn’t
worth the risk of being unfairly pilloried that increasingly seems to
come with it.”
Horn of Africa piracy
A total of 40 vessels have been hijacked in 2009, in addition to 144 failed
attacks. Currently eight hijacked vessels, with a combined crew of 174 people,
are being held by pirates. The Taiwanese fishing vessel Win Far has been held
for 202 days and the Ukrainian bulk carrier Ariana for 176 days. There have
been some harsh verbal exchanges relating to the latter case, with the pirates
threatening to execute crew members once the fuel runs out.
Five vessels have been hijacked only in October, in addition to ten failed
attacks.
During the period June-September, the monthly hijacking figures were 2-2-0-1.
The failed attack figures for the same period were 13-2-8-10.
These are the aggregate figures covering the Gulf of Aden (GOA) AND the Indian
Ocean.
The key conclusions to be drawn from the figures are:
*Following the conclusion of the monsoon season the pirates are back in the
Indian Ocean and operate way out from the East African coast.
*Generally speaking, the pirates find it increasingly difficult to
succeed, in particular in GOA. Principal reasons: the naval presence and
merchant vessel crews who increasingly operate by the book. Needless to say,
merchant vessels cannot expect warships to provide the same degree of
protection in the Indian Ocean.
Fairplay Launches Lifeline for Battered Shipping Industry
The global shipping industry is starting to recover from the worst slump in
decades and a new online service from maritime information group Lloyd’s
Register-Fairplay will provide the latest shipping data, news and market
analysis, allowing subscribers to track the revival in trade on oil and
commodity routes across the world.
The service, part of the Fairplay24 news and information centre
(www.fairplay.co.uk), will supply data on the movements of the global shipping
fleet as vessels transport crude and commodities, including coal and iron ore,
to major consumers.
Read more about Lloyd’s Register-Fairplay on www.lrfairplay.com.
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