The Panama Canal has joined the list of places where the use of open loop scrubbers is prohibited.

MARAD – or Marine Administration - is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Its purposes include meeting the national security needs of that nation. Its circulars do however often contain information of interest to seafarers of all nations. The organisation is once again warning of GPS interference in this latest and newly-released ‘Maritime Security Communication with Industry’ alert.

IMO has set a limit for sulphur in fuel oil used on board ships operating outside designated Emission Control Areas (ECAs). As of 1st January 2020, the limit for sulphur in fuel oils will be 0.50% m/m (mass by mass). Once the regulation is in force, IMO expects a drop of 77% in overall sulphur oxide emissions from ships during the years 2020 to 2025.

The leading onboard training provider Seagull Maritime acquires 50% of the shares in COEX. 

COEX, based in Bergen, Norway, are delivering solutions within General Document Management, HSEQ and Procedures, Project Management and Personnel Management for the Maritime and Oil & Gas Industry.

Accidents continue to happen with Life Saving Appliances (LSA) in which crew were seriously or fatally injured whilst participating in drills. Crew members are becoming increasingly apprehensive during launching and recovery exercises. This DNV GL news item provides a set of lessons learned from their work with LSAs.

In 2019, the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) chose the environment as its annual focus area. When the NMA’s surveyors have been carrying out inspections on ships this year, their focus has been on environment-related issues. The Authority has recently announced that its focus area for 2020 is again the environment, continuing work from this year. It is a result of identifying a need to ensure that measures taken have a greater impact before a new focus area is chosen.

Image©: Sjøfartsdirektoratet

Most personnel serving on gas carriers will already be familiar with ‘SIGTTO’, but to many others, it remains simply an acronym. This representative industry organisation is about to celebrate its 40th birthday and it is therefore a good opportunity to take a look at what its role is.

Image©: SIGTTO

SEA\LNG is a UK-registered not for profit collaborative industry foundation serving the needs of its member organisations committed to furthering the use of LNG as an important, environmentally superior maritime fuel. SEA\LNG has members across the entire LNG value chain including providers of the product, users, engine and asset suppliers, and class societies.

The sinking of the MS ESTONIA resulted in one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a European ship, second only to the RMS TITANIC. The cruise ferry was sailing from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden. 989 people were on board before it sank in the Baltic Sea, with only 138 rescued alive, one of whom later died in hospital. People from 17 different nationalities lost their lives, with the vast majority of victims coming from Sweden (501) and Estonia (285).

The IMO is inviting the entire maritime world to highlight and showcase their commitment to empowering women in the maritime community to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on gender equality.

Image©: IMO ​