International Maritime Organization - Coursework Example

NMS 105 work Part A Maritime Organizations The shipping industry is controlled by several UN agencies, mainly the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This agency aims at developing and sustaining the framework of international maritime safety guidelines. This paper has looked into various maritime agencies, clearly outlining their roles. It has specifically dealt with International Maritime Organization (IMO), Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA), and Marine Accident investigation Branch (MAIB). It extends to explore the codes of practices that govern shipping in an effort to prevent pollution, while paying close attention to International Safety Management (ISM) Code and Small Commercial Vessel (SVC) Code. The paper concludes by looking into the Regulatory requirements and guidance such as ship registration. It specifically focuses on United Kingdom Ship registration and Small ship register, and Marine Notices. International Maritime Organization (IMO) This is a United Nations’ specialized agency that is accountable for measures for improving the security and safety of global shipping and to thwart marine pollution by ships (Balkin, 2006). This agency serves several purposes while striving to safeguard marine shipping. First, it seeks to ensure cooperation among governments regarding all kinds of technical matters that affect shipping in global trade. The second function is it serves to encourage the overall adoption of the best practicable principles about navigation efficiency, maritime safety, and control and prevention of marine pollution. Thirdly, IMO serves to facilitate the removal of needless restrictions and discriminatory action by governments that take part in international trade, to uphold the accessibility of shipping services to international trade without discrimination (Oxman, 1995). Fourthly, this agency has a purpose to consider issues relating to unfair practices in shipping as well as any issues about shipping that may require the attention of the IMO by the UN organ. Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) This is a United Kingdom agency that seeks to prevent loss of lives in marine transport at sea. It is responsible for the implementation of the international and the British maritime safety policy and law (Hetherington, Flin & Mearns, 2006). Its main roles are, to coordinate search and rescue in the sea with the help of her majesty’s coastguards, watching and preventing water pollution at the coastal sea. It also guarantees that ships meet the United Kingdom and the international safety standards, and issuing and testing merchant navy certificates of proficiency among the crew and ship’s officers. The Maritime Coastguard Agency therefore has three different elements (Loughran et al., 2002). They include development of global policy and standards for shipping, providing search and rescue services, and engaging in state control of port and flag shipping via a system of marine officers Marine Accident investigation Branch (MAIB) MAIB is a branch of the United Kingdom transport department that takes part in the investigation of any form of accident that occurs in the United Kingdom waters (Wang et al., 2005). This role is performed irrespective of the nationality of the involved vessel. It also covers accidents that involve United Kingdom registered ships internationally. These investigations are comprehensive but strictly limited to promoting risk awareness, establishing cause, and preventing future occurrence. Marine Accident investigation Branch also has the role of contributing to safety at sea. It does this by identifying the causes and situation of these marine accidents. It then works closely and collaboratively with other agencies to reduce the possibilities of future occurrences of such incidents (Wang et al., 2005). The branch solely conducts accident investigations with the concern of future safety. Codes of Practice International Safety Management (ISM) Code The International Safety Management Code offers a worldwide standard for the safe administration and operation of ships with an aim to prevent pollution (Mejia, 2001).Its purposes include; ensuring safety at sea, preventing loss of life and human injury, avoiding damage to the ship and to the environment, particularly marine environment. The code’s safety management objectives include providing for safe ship operation practices, ensuring a safe working environment, developing safeguards against each and every risk identified, and endlessly improving skills for safety management both for aboard ships and personnel ashore (Kristiansen, 2013).In addition, the code has a key objective of preparing for any form of emergency relating to environmental protection or human safety. Small Commercial Vessel (SVC) Code This code strengthens the fact that it is a legal necessity that United Kingdom vessels that is at least 24 meters long in charter use or business operation, carry at most twelve passengers or cargo, adhere to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (Pun, Yam & Lewis, 2003).This code of practice also ensures that these small commercial vessels are issued with legal certificates by an accepted Certifying Authority. Anyone who intends to operate or who operate a small vessel for charter or commercial use will be required by this act, to prepare and equip his or her vessel with the appropriate code standard (Wong, 2005). This code applies to motor charter vessels, workboats, drive and angling boats, motor vessels with a capacity to carry up to twelve passengers, and sailing charter vessels. The code also requires that the vessels be subject to a complete out of water condition survey. The vessel must also verify its lifesaving equipment and safety equipment and assess that they are stable before the certificate is issued. Regulatory requirements and guidance UK Ship registration and Small ship register Ship registration is the act of documenting a ship and giving it a nationality of that country it has been documented to (Wang, Corbett & Firestone, 2007). It is this nationality that permits the ship to travel worldwide since it acts as a proof of ownership of that vessel. The United Kingdom registration and small ship register therefore has the role of ensuring that all the merchant ships are registered in a country. This country is referred to as the flag country (Alderton & Winchester, 2002). The ship therefore is expected to sail under that particular flag of its country of registration. The flag state exercise of a ship regulatory control of a vessel is expected to entail regular inspection, certification of the stability of the crew and the ship’s equipment. It also issues pollution prevention and safety documents. Registers can be offered by private agencies or governmental agencies. Marine Notices (MCA) M Notices has the key role of broadcasting to the fishing and shipping industries significant safety and pollution prevention together with other relevant information (Davenport, 2007). The M notices have three main branches. The Merchant Shipping Notices (MSNs) usually has the fine detail of the United Kingdom law that is lawfully enforceable, if referred to using a statutory instrument. This notice conveys obligatory information which has to be compiled as per the United Kingdom legislation (Davenport, 2007). The Marine Guidance Notes (MGNs) provides significant guidance and advice concerning safety improvement during shipping, and regarding life at the sea. All these are aimed at minimizing and preventing pollution from shipping. It also offers recommendations on best industry practices about interpretation of law. Marine Information Notes (MINs) gives less significant information that is time limited. It also gives changes of addresses if they expire. It is hence intended for a relatively limited audience. Part B Data Set 1 Arithmetic mean = (X1+X2+...+XN)/N = 68.38 Class Frequency (f) Cumulative f (cf) Midpoint (x) fx Fx2 0-9 0 0 4.5 0 0 10-19 2 2 14.5 29 841 20-29 0 2 24.5 0 0 30-39 0 2 34.5 0 0 40-49 2 4 44.5 89 7921 50-59 1 5 54.5 54.5 2970.25 60-69 1 6 64.5 64.5 4160.25 70-79 7 13 74.5 521.5 271962.25 80-89 7 20 84.5 591.5 349872.25 90-99 1 21 94.5 94.5 8930.5 N=21 =1444.5 =646657.5 Median n=Total frequency = 21 F=cumulative frequency before the median class = 6 =frequency of the median class =7 =lower boundary of the median class =69.5 i = class interval = 10 Median class is 70-79 = Mode = Lower boundary of the modal class = 79.5 = difference between frequencies of the modal class and the class after it = 6 = difference between frequencies of the modal class and the class before it = 0 i = class interval = 10 Mode= the value with the highest frequency = 80-89 = Standard deviation Data set 2 Class Frequency (f) Cumulative f (cf) Midpoint (x) fx Fx2 0-9 2 2 4.5 9 81 10-19 0 2 14.5 0 0 20-29 0 2 24.5 0 0 30-39 2 4 34.5 69 4761 40-49 1 5 44.5 44.5 1980.25 50-59 2 7 54.5 109 11881 60-69 7 14 64.5 451.5 203852.25 70-79 6 20 74.5 447 199809 80-89 1 21 84.5 84.5 7140.25 N=21 =1214.5 = 429504.75 Arithmetic mean =57.52 Median Median class = 60-69 Mode Modal class =60-69 Standard deviation References Alderton, T, & Winchester, N 2002, ‘Flag states and safety: 1997-1999’,Maritime Policy & Management, vol. 29, no.2, pp. 151-162. Balkin, R 2006,‘International Maritime Organization and Maritime Security’, the. Tul. Mar. LJ, 30, 1. Davenport, J M 2007,‘Proficiency and Conduct Marks’,Marine Corps Gazette, vol. 91, no. 12, pp. 7. Hetherington, C, Flin, R, & Mearns, K 2006,‘Safety in shipping: The human element’,Journal of safety research, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 401-411. Kristiansen, S 2013.Maritime transportation: safety management and risk analysis. Routledge. Loughran, C G, Pillay, A, Wang, J, Wall, A, & Ruxton, T 2002, ‘A preliminary study of fishing vessel safety’,Journal of Risk Research, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 3-21. Mejia, M 2001,‘Performance Criteria for the International Safety Management (ISM) Code’, Proceedings of the 2nd General Assembly of IAMU International Association of Maritime Universities, 2(5). Oxman, B H 1995, Environmental Protection in Archipelagic Waters and International Straits-The Role of the International Maritime Organization’,Intl J. Marine & Coastal L., 10, 467. Pun, K F, Yam, R C., & Lewis, W G 2003,‘Safety management system registration in the shipping industry’,International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 20, no. 6, pp.704-721. Wang, C, Corbett, J J, & Firestone, J 2007, ‘Improving spatial representation of global ship emissions inventories,Environmental science & technology, vol. 42, no.1, pp. 193-199. Wang, J, Pillay, A, Kwon, Y S., Wall, A D, & Loughran, C G 2005,‘An analysis of fishing vessel accidents,Accident Analysis & Prevention, vol. 37, no.6, pp. 1019-1024. Wong, K. (2005). Untangling safety-critical source code (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia). Read More