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.

Accidents in enclosed spaces continue to cause serious injuries and fatalities on board ships. Accident analysis shows that failure to follow established procedures is one of the primary causes of such accident. Despite regulations being in place to control the risks associated with enclosed space operations, seafarers are still dying in enclosed space incidents.

Seagull Training Administrator (STA), the backbone of Seagull Maritime comprehensive training and competence management platform, has been updated with a NEW Dashboard..

To be qualified to work on board a modern ship, all crewmembers must be able to document their competences. As a result, training has become a necessary and important part of a seafarer’s job.
Responding to the growing need for a modernised and more convenient way of training, Seagull has developed Electronic Distance courses.

The most common way for cyber criminals to strike is through negligent or poorly trained individuals. In the past, many companies have been victims of cybercrime by relatively unsophisticated hacking methods, such as downloadable links in emails and viruses. In the maritime industry, the belief that “Our vessel is not connected to the cyberspace” is very much WRONG!

OCIMF (Oil Companies International Marine Forum) has recently released their new Vessel Inspection Questionnaire (VIQ) that takes effect on 17th of September 2018. With a complete section on maritime security devoted to Cyber Security, this is the first major revision of OCIMF’s VIQ since 2013.

Seafarers can now undergo training on Occupational Health and Safety on board their respective vessels using a new on board course. 

One of the challenges that navigating officers’ face is a large number of ECDIS systems found on vessels, all with different user interfaces. However, on boarding vessels officers need to be able to competently use the ECDIS, as it could be their main source of navigation. In order to assist the shipping industry, Seagull has partnered with ECDIS developers to create cost-effective ECDIS type-specific training for several of the widely used models.

Across the global maritime community, vessels, ports and facilities are increasingly dependent on cyber systems. Failure to anticipate and prepare for a cyber incident could lead to disastrous consequences.

There has been a positive trend for the Norwegian International Ship (NIS) register over the past 3 years, with more ship-owners registering their vessels back to Norwegian flag. According to Olav Akselsen, Director of the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA), ‘more than 230 vessels have been registered in NIS since 2014, most of them coming back to Norwegian flag due to changed operational terms for the owners’.