摘要: |
In December 2022, I was invited to moderate a conference panel on places of refuge as part of Seatrade Maritime's Salvage and Wreck conference in London. It was an interesting discussion that has made me want to share a few follow-up thoughts with you here. First of all, with updated guidance around places of refuge having been agreed upon by the IMO in November 2022, it was a timely discussion that involved representatives from the shipowners' side via BIMCO, crew views via InterManager, and the Port of Rotterdam. The updated IMO guidance relates to the preparedness of places of refuge, mainly ports, to take in ships in distress. However, it is not a manual or a legal request to make preparations - for either of the involved parties, and it cannot be. But I think it is a prompt to collaborate with each other. This sector-to-sector collaboration is particularly important as, due to the IMO's remit, the guidelines speak to shipowners and crew but do not specifically call for ports to prepare and train to help in salvage operations. Rather, their role focuses on offering the chance to stabilize the ship and prevent pollution as a general outcome of the incident response. |