Safety Parent

Piracy blossoms off West Africa whilst attention is focused on Somalia. During the last two days the Secretariat has received reports of pirate attacks on three member vessels, two in Douala and one off Lagos, resulting in the kidnapping of 2 Masters and 1 Chief Engineer as well as the infliction of gunshot wounds to one Master and another person.Members are reminded of the need for vessels to be particularly vigilant when in all High Risk areas. Useful information can be obtained from our website under Port Information. For example Cameroon - Security Advisories should result in a heightened awareness of the need to at least Implement measures as per the ships security plan equivalent to Security Level 2Although giving no guarantee of averting Pirate attacks, the Pirates might have chosen another vessel or the kidnapping of personnel might have been avoided, had the vessels awareness and response been more assertive.Much of the advice given in the Best Management Practices, although primarily directed at Somali waters can be used elsewhere.Members are also reminded that they can obtain valuable pre-planning information and review their individual vessel risk profiles for transiting any region and/or calling at ports in the region by utilising...

The Paris Memorandum of Understanding With the introduction of the NIR the PMoU will change its target of inspecting 25% of individual ships calling at each member State to a shared commitment for full coverage of inspecting all ships visiting ports and anchorages in the PMoU region as a whole. The Target Factor will be replaced by the Ship Risk Profile. The Ship Risk Profile classifies ships into Low Risk Ships (LRS) and High Risk Ships (HRS). If a ship is neither Low Risk or High Risk it is classified as Standard Risk Ship (SRS).The company performance criteria for the calculation of the Ship Risk Profile is a new parameter in the PMoU. The PMoU has established a formula which takes into consideration the deficiencies and detentions in the last 36 months of the companys fleet, based on the IMO company number and compares it to the average of all vessels inspected in the PMoU to determine the performance level. The companies will be ranked into very low, low, medium and high. Any Refusal of Access (Ban) will have a negative impact on the ranking of the companywill be subject to more in-depth and more frequent inspections.1. The new target...

Question Time Somalias transitional government called on Russia on Friday to explain why it had cut 10 Somali pirates adrift in the Gulf on Aden without navigation equipment or much hope of survival.Russian forces last week stormed a hijacked oil tanker in a rescue operation that killed one pirate. Russia said 10 others arrested were later set loose aboard one of the small vessels they used in the attack.A military official said they were stripped of their weapons and navigation equipment. Russian media later quoted a military source saying the pirates were now likely dead.We want an explanation from Russia on the death of our citizens, Abdirasak Aden, an official at Somalias Information Ministry, told Reuters.They are gangs and there is no dispute on that, but they have to get a fair trial. Dumping them in international waters was not the only choice, he said.Somali pirates have made tens of millions of dollars from seizing merchant vessels for ransom in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. With foreign navies patrolling the busy shipping lanes, the pirates are striking further afield.According to the International Maritime Bureau, Somali pirates accounted for more than half the reported piracy incidents worldwide in...

Sailors from Russian tanker to return home this month after pirate attack A dozen sailors from the Moscow University tanker, which was briefly seized by Somali pirates last week, will return to Russia this month, the mother of a crew member said. Ten pirates were captured and one killed in an operation on May 6 to free the Moscow University tanker, captured the day before."They will return in May. The exact date is unknown. Maybe, next week," Lyudmila Ivanova said.Question were raised from the fact that Russian military officials were forced to release the hijackers, captured in the rescue operation, because there is no international legal base to carry out prosecution procedures against pirates.The captured pirates were disarmed and set adrift in a rubber boat without navigation equipment. The Russian military concluded that the hijackers perished as their boat disappeared from radars an hour after they were released.Source:eunavfor

Somali pirates release ship after ransom payment Somali pirates have released a British chemical tanker after receiving a ransom payment, the European Union Naval Force said Friday. The St. James Park tanker was safely on its way after ransom was delivered Thursday, the force said. It had been anchored in Garacad, Somalia. Officials did not say how much ransom was paid or where the ship was headed.The ship was on its way to Thailand on December 28, 2009, when pirates hijacked it in the Gulf of Aden, a body of water between Somalia and Yemen, the naval force said.Twenty-six crew members were onboard -- including Bulgarians, Filipinos, Georgians, Indians, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Turks and Ukrainians, according to the naval force.Source:CNN

Rob Lomas, Intercargo Secretary General said Port State Control is an important tool in promoting the idea of a safe and environmentally friendly dry bulk sector." On 13 May 2010, the International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners (Intercargo) launched their publication Benchmarking Bulk Carriers 2009-10. Now in its fourth year of publication, the hard-copy report contains statistical information concerning the world bulk carrier fleet, together with an informative narrative for issues such as recent and future Port State Control activities including Concentrated Inspection Campaigns, a detailed Casualty Report, an analysis of Negative Performance Indicators such as collisions and groundings, and an analysis of Port State Control deficiencies and detentions during 2009.Speaking of the publication, Rob Lomas, Intercargo Secretary General said Port State Control is an important tool in promoting the idea of a safe and environmentally friendly dry bulk sector. 2009 was marked by fleet growth and changes to the overall structure of the industry including the establishment of many new dry bulk companies. Our report will assist MOUs and owners to benchmark their own performance against an industry average as well as identifying those factors in the internal management of the ships most in need of attention. This year,...

UN Plan Slammed A Somali insurgent group has lambasted a UN-backed anti-piracy mission off Somalias long coast, saying that foreign fleets patrolling the waters were part of the piracy menace because they protected trawlers looting Somali fish stocks, Radio Garowe reports.The Somali Islamist political faction Hizbul Islam said the internationally backed campaign against the Somalia-based sea gangs is having a huge impact on the local fisheries sector.The UN plan is meant to fight against Somali fishermen, and increase the political pressure in the country, said a statement from the group.Having naval fleets in Somali waters is not the solution for the country and its people, but would instead increase the piracy menace.Last week, Hizbul Islam rebels seized the town of coastal town of Harardheere, a notorious pirate hub in central Somalia. The pirates fled north to Hobyo as the Islamist rebels vowed to take more pirate towns along Somalias coast.Harardhere was experiencing insecurity and that is why we captured it and implemented Sharia Law, the statement read.Hizbul Islam is involved in a bloody conflict with the Western-backed Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which controls few blocks in the capital Mogadishu with the aid of a 5,300-strong African Union peacekeeping force.The...

Courts set for major boost in war on piracy Kenya is among countries that have been identified to help step up the war on piracy, which is threatening international trade along the Somalia coast. The international community has come up with a new initiative to curb the sea crime, which has pushed up insurance premiums and shipping costs.The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the European Commission are supporting the upscaling of prosecution of piracy suspects.The new initiative aims at enhancing criminal justice capacity building among Somalias neighbours to ensure that piracy trials and detentions are fair, humane, and efficient.A report by UNODC says that although it will initially focus its core support on Kenya, more countries are set to be brought on board.Thanks to support received from other donor countries, we are also pursuing an ambitious programme to introduce capacity-building measures to other countries in the region that are willing to prosecute piracy suspects to reduce the burden on Kenya, the UNODC report says.The UN agency promises to work with Somalia to improve prison conditions, allow the return of convicted Somali pirates, and increase the countrys capacity to investigate, prosecute, and detain suspected pirates in line...

Pirates release ransomed reefer Early this morning, Tuesday, May 11, the Bermuda flagged cargo ship MV Talca, hijacked 2 months ago, was released by pirates holding the ship.The ransom drop was made on the May 8, and the ship left the pirate stronghold and headed north. However, the pirates remained onboard the ship and only left this morning putting ashore near the town of Bargaal.MV Talca, with a dead weight of 11 055 tonnes, was hijacked on the afternoon of 23 March approximately 120 nautical miles off the coast of Oman. MV Talca has a crew of 22 (20 Sri Lankan, 1 Syrian and 1 Filipino). The Cargo ship is now heading towards Salalah. EU NAVFOR will continue to monitor the situation.EU NAVFOR Somalia Ð Operation ATALANTAÕs main tasks are to escort merchant vessels carrying humanitarian aid of the World Food Programme (WFP) and vessels of African Union Mission in Somalia, AMISOM and to protect vulnerable vessels in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and to deter and disrupt piracy. EU NAVFOR also monitors fishing activity off the coast of Somalia.Source:marinelog

German operated chemical tanker hijacked Early this afternoon, 8 May, a Marshal Island flagged, German owned, Chemical tanker the MARIDA MARGUERITE, of 13000 tonnes, was hijacked 120 miles south of Salalah (Oman).The ship was approached by a pirate skiff firing automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades and the crew reported that they saw the pirates climbing onboard.The ship has a crew of 22 (19 Indian, 1 Ukranian, 2 Bangladeshi) and it is believed that all are well. A passing merchant ship tried to make contact by VHF radio but received a response from the bridge of the hijacked vessel to go away. EU NAVFOR will continue to monitor the situation.EU NAVFOR Somalia Operation ATALANTAs main tasks are to escort merchant vessels carrying humanitarian aid of the World Food Programme (WFP) and vessels of African Union Mission in Somalia, AMISOM and to protect vulnerable vessels in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and to deter and disrupt piracy. EU NAVFOR alsomonitors fishing activity off the coast of Somalia.Source: EUNavFor