News Hound

In this article, John Kilhams, (retired IIMS education co-ordinator), discusses the virtues of the BTEC HND and HNC marine surveying qualification, the only externally awarded qualification of its type in the world.

Do I need a qualification?
This is a question frequently asked. You can practice without a marine surveying qualification as the profession is largely unregulated, but it is not in your best interest to do so. Insurance companies may well insist that you are qualified to carry out the work you undertake, even though you may have many years of experience in the field and have lots of practical experience. Without this, or a recognised qualification, it will be difficult if not impossible to get PI cover (professional indemnity). As a small craft member of the IIMS you are required to have this cover in place for every survey you undertake. This can be expensive but with the right qualifications or proven experience it can be available at a more reasonable cost.

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By Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of NGO Shipbreaking Platform

More than 70 percent of the world’s obsolete tonnage ends up polluting the Indian sub-continent and putting workers’ lives at risk. The Report Magazine invited Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director, NGO Shipbreaking Platform to give an overview of their work. In this thought provoking article, she explains the issues and problems caused by some of the unsafe methods and procedures utilised to break end-of-life ships on tidal beaches.

Every year, more than 1,000 obsolete cargo and container ships, oil and gas tankers, passenger and ro-ro vessels have to be dismantled as they are not economically viable anymore for their owners. The NGO Shipbreaking Platform keeps track of these global shipbreaking trends: in 2014, out of a total of 1026 ships dismantled globally, 641 – representing 74% of the total gross tonnage (GT) scrapped – were sold to substandard shipbreaking facilities in India, Pakistan and Continue reading “Dangerous and Dirty Ship Demolition and Shipbreaking”

By Capt Andrew (Drew) Frank Korek, MIIMS

Whilst many of us were enjoying the Christmas period in the comfort of our own homes, for one IIMS member and marine surveyor it was a Christmas with a difference. This is Drew Korek’s story and account about the ‘heavy lift’ loading of the Happy Star using extracts taken from his report with his permission.

As The Report magazine went to press, Drew had just completed overseeing the load off the ship in Quebec. The whole project has captured the attention of the media too. This fall you will be able to watch a conclusion of this captivating project and portion of the Happy Star voyage from China on Discovery Channel show entitled Mighty Ship’s.

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IIMS has been granted permission to re-publish Dryad Maritime’s latest maritime crime figures. Dryad Maritime is a maritime operations company with a high-grade intelligence capability.

Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea saw an overall reduction in the number of incidents in 2014: a decrease of 18% when compared to 2013. Despite this overall reduction, the year saw a marked increase in the number of attacks resulting in the kidnap of senior crew from support craft and commercial vessels trading in the region. Fourteen vessels had crew taken captive last year, compared to eight vessels having crew kidnapped the previous year.

Just two of last year’s attacks occurred inside Nigeria’s 12 nautical mile (nm) territorial waters, with the remainder further offshore where protection from security vessels is less available. A further 14 unsuccessful attacks took place within the Nigerian exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Analysis suggests that the vast majority of these criminal gang attacks were aimed at the kidnap of crew, especially given the areas and weaponry involved. Effective defensive measures employed by crews and security teams meant that these 14 attacks were aborted and were not added to the already higher statistics for kidnap or cargo theft.

Continue reading “Special report. Maritime crime figures 2014”