Marine Regulations & Guides

Despite numerous sophisticated technical innovations including those introduced recently, the work of any marine port is still connected with the many accidents, i.e. it is the occupation where the accident rate is considered very high. As a result, it is thought that there is a constant need for the properly developed and implemented working practices in every marine port, to ensure that the health and safety of the personnel working there is safeguarded as required.

The present code of practice book is a sort of essential reading on this and will provide industry with the valuable professional advice and help in all questions related to the safety and health of the port employees. It will be particularly helpful to the people assigned operational and managerial responsibilities. In addition, the publication will be appreciated by all employees involved in the routine maintenance and future development of the marine ports with the main emphasis done on the safety aspects.

The authors have given numerous informative illustrations and perfectly worked examples to make sure that the content is readable. All important aspects of marine port activities is covered including but not limited to the loading and discharge of cargoes, domestic and international trade, inland waterways, conventional and innovative methods, traffic, lighting provision, vehicular motion, ergonomics, handling dangerous cargo etc.

This guide prepared and officially released by the MCA, i.e. United Kingdom Maritime and Coastguard Agency, was developed on the basis of the information obtained during the consultation with the leading and respected maritime organizations. The publication is aimed at virtually every single person involved in the maritime shipping industry.

The authors have provided good explanations of the essential matters related to the human behavior at sea, constituting the so-called “human element” widely referred to in the international commercial marine sector. Note that we even have a section here dealing with the problem of the Human Element in the industry. It is nearly obvious that the human element in the contemporary shipping industry is one of the key elements.

The authors of the present Guide made an excellent effort to demonstrate that the properly conducted management of the human element shall take place at absolutely all levels. It has also been seriously implicated by the continued shipping disasters. That is why the authors have tried to provide readers with the detailed explanations and good professional advice in order to assist them with managing the human element in the most effective, safe and profitable way.

This is the official release of the IMO SAR Convention, i.e. the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, which was initially adopted more that forty years ago in the course of the international conference on this subject, held in Hamburg. The main declared objective of the convention was and still remains the improvement of the existing arrangements in this field as well as provision of the effective framework for those involved in SAR operations that normally follow the accidents occurred at sea.

Many countries of the world have developed their own plan for these emergencies; however, that was the very first time when the international procedures were adopted. The current document will provide readers with the official text of the revised edition of the Search and Rescue Convention taking into account the further amendments which followed within the Res. MSC.155(78).

The publication is a real must-have one for all people willing to be updated with the regulatory framework for the modern SAR operations and maritime shipping industry in general. The organization and co-ordination of the operations have been addressed in detail together with the operating procedures and ship reporting systems.

This is a very compact but yet very informative booklet specifically prepared and released by the ICS, standing for the International Chamber of Shipping. The document will provide necessary instructions to those involved in the development of the Plans and Procedures for recovery of people from water. As we all know, all vessels are required to have such Plans and Procedures since July 2014.

The document shall be ship-specific and the contents shall be clearly identifying the equipment that is intended to be utilized when recovering people from sea. In addition to that, the Plan shall describe all measures that will be taken to get the associated risks to the crew members minimized. In most cases there will be no need for installing any additional equipment and the existing shipboard equipment and arrangements will be considered sufficient.

Subject equipment obviously includes lifeboats and rigid/inflatable liferafts, rescue boats and pilot ladders, openings in the sides like bunker and pilot doors, lifebuoys, searchlights and others. The present Guidelines were prepared to give some practical assistance to the companies willing to get in compliance with the SOLAS Reg. III/17-1.

The latest edition of the SOLAS Convention released in 2018. This edition is the continuation of the previously released SOLAS 2009 and SOLAS 2014. This is the most important of the documents issued by IMO. Traditionally, at starting from the very first edition of the convention, its main objective remains providing the maritime shipping industry with the carefully thought and well developed range of necessary measures to improve the human safety at sea.

As you know, the original release of the convention took place in 1914 and since then the provisions of the convention are the must-do to the people who want to stay safe when working at sea. The text of this latest edition of the convention has been revised and updated in order to reflect all the latest technological development as well as all changes in the regulatory framework.

The arrangement of the material follows the regular pattern in use for the past decades and traditionally covers all important areas related to the safety of life at sea. Needless to say that a copy of the convention is a must-have document on board every single ship to which the provisions of the convention apply, and in the library of every single person involved in the maritime shipping.

The main declared objective of the present training booklet released by Videotel is to motivate the ship officers including both senior and junior officers to get the energy efficiency of their ships maximized to the possible extent. The publication will also be of great practical interest to the technical superintendents as well as the operators, shore personnel and workers of the commercial department.

The training set consists of this workbook and a very good video training lesson and they should be used together for better results. However, the booklet itself can be used as a good reference source. The glossary of the main terminology is included in the booklet together with a separate reference chapter devoted to the relevant regulations. The trainees will also find a sample SEEMP as well as EEOI, standing for the Energy Efficiency Operational Indicator.

Numerous questions have been included for the assessment and control of the training. The training set is strongly recommended to anyone working on board marine ships, taking into account the latest changes to the provisions of the MARPOL convention and coming into force of the energy efficiency-related regulations.

The present official IMO publication was prepared by the MEPC. i.e. Maritime Environment Protection Committee, consists of three separate volumes. The first volume of the set covers the regulations related to the maritime transportation of the HNS, standing for the hazardous and noxious substances, various fates and hazards associated with the HNS release, emergency preparedness, and also describes the most effective methods and techniques of chemical response; numerous case studies supplement the main content of the first volume.

The second volume of the Manual is fully devoted to the search and recovery of the different packaged products that have been lost at sea; it also opens with the chapter about the regulations governing the transportation of the dangerous goods by sea, this chapter being followed by the one addressing the loss and fate of such packages, their location, hazard assessment and actions that shall be taken for their recovery. The explosive materials have been dealt with in a separate chapter. The third volume is solely dealing with the administrative and legal aspects of the incidents involving HNS – subject volume was released in 2015 and concludes the manual.

We know that the artificial reefs are used in so many countries all around the world and have been used throughout many ages. The continuously escalating use of such reefs in coastal waters, especially when combined with the possibility of having negative consequences, has eventually resulted in the requirement of having some special form of worldwide guidance that would provide necessary information about their construction and deployment as well as management.

One of the major aims of this publication officially prepared and released by the IMO, is to ensure that their development is taking place fully consistent with the formal provisions and aims declared within the London Convention. It will also help ensure that subject development is carried out harmonized with the essential principles of the ecological approach to the marine environment management.

The content of the Guidelines is written in order to provide assistance to the countries where the requirement to assess the relevant proposals for placing such reefs has already been recognized and will also help in preparation of the associated regulatory framework. It will also be useful when used for implementation of the existing regulations.