Port State Control will have an important role to play in ensuring compliance by ships to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulations for the 2020 Global Sulphur Limit, which came into effect on January 1.

Under the new regulations, the IMO has set a limit of 0.5 per cent for sulphur in fuel used onboard ships, down from 3.5 per cent.

This is expected to significantly reduce

the amount of sulphur oxide emanating from vessels and provide major health and

environmental benefits, particularly for populations living close to ports and

coasts.

Director-General of the Maritime Authority

of Jamaica, Rear Admiral (Ret’d) Peter Brady, told JIS News that Port State

Control determines whether ships are in compliance, by using a series of checks

and balances.

“Maritime authorities in the IMO member

states are required to ensure that ships use fuel that is compliant with the

sulphur cap. When these ships call at a port, Port State Control Officers,

through a series of guidelines and measures that the IMO has promulgated, will

be able to determine if the vessel has compliant fuel on board,” he explained.

The inspection routine of Port State

Control officers is guided by IMO conventions, such as the Safety of Life at

Sea (SOLAS) Convention; the International Convention for the Prevention of

Pollution from Ships (MARPOL); and the International Regulations for Preventing

Collisions at Sea (COLREGs).

Some Port State Control regimes also

examine compliance with the relevant International Labour Organization (ILO)

conventions.

 “What

we require is that all foreign ships visiting Jamaica’s ports are in compliance

with the international rules for safety, pollution prevention and maritime

security. We do this through our Port State Control machinery where our

officers board foreign ships that visit our waters and ensure that these ships

are in compliance with international standards,” Brady stated.

He added that if ships are found to be in

breach of the regulations, they may be detained until the deficiencies are

rectified and are brought into compliance.

In maritime states, the Port State Control

authority is a member of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) within a region.

Caribbean countries are members of the Caribbean MOU on Port State Control.

Admiral Brady further indicated that the MOU

provides for a level of cooperation among member states to ensure the

compliance of vessels as they sail through each country’s territorial waters.

“If, for instance, a vessel leaves one

Caribbean country and might not have been checked and there is a suspicion that

there is something wrong, that information is passed through the system to the

next port of call in the region,” he said.

“The authorities would, therefore, be aware

that a tag has been placed on that ship and would carry out an inspection,

because of detailed information and intelligence that they would have had on

the ship,” Admiral Brady added.

Brady further argued that if officers in a

particular port suspect that a ship is burning non-compliant fuel, they may

start the process by carrying out tests.

He, however, noted that in rare

circumstances, the ship may have the opportunity to sail to the next port,

which will continue the investigations.

“This is where the MOU comes in. If they

are not 100 per cent certain of an irregularity and they feel that the ship can

proceed to the next port, they may allow it to go because it may take a little

time for the lab results to come out and they will now pass on the information,

to the next port of call within that MOU, that this ship is suspect,” he

explained.

He noted that the results are provided in a

timely manner, and if they are negative when the information is passed, the

ship will be detained and this information is passed to all members of the

Caribbean MOU and the regional MOUs around the world.

Admiral Brady said it is important to note that a ship that has been detained is unable to earn.

— JIS