The 2016 SAFETY4SEA Conference & Awards, a PRO BONO event, successfully concluded on Wednesday 5th of October 2016 in Eugenides Foundation, Athens attracting 900 delegates from 25 countries representing a total of 400 organizations.
Six panels of 18 prominent experts focused on safety perspectives, loss prevention, incident investigation, security and human element issues revealing fresh perspectives on the above issues, based on the needs of maritime community and providing best practices and practical knowledge.
The event organized by SQE4SEA and sponsored by ABS, American Club, Arcadia Shipmanagement Co Ltd, Blank Rome LLP, Capital Ship Management Corp, CHALOS & Co PC, Diaplous Maritime Services, DNV GL, Dorian LPG, Fike Safety Technology, Hellenic Mutual War Risks Club, INSB Class, MacGregor, Magsaysay People Resources Corporation, Marita Hellas, Marshall Islands Registry, Norsafe Group, RISK4SEA, SKILL4SEA, SQE ACADEMY, SQE MARINE, T&T SALVAGE and UK P&I Club. Furthermore, the event was supported by: AMMITEC, Apostleship of the Sea, Chios Marine Club, ECOMASYN, EΛΙΝΤ, HEMEXPO, Human Rights at Sea, Piraeus Marine Club, PEPEN, Piraeus Association for Maritime Arbitration, Technological Foundation Institute of Athens, University of the Aegean, WIMA, WISTA Hellas and Yatch Club of Greece.
The inaugural presentation of the SAFETY4SEA Awards took place at the closing of the forum within the scope of awarding industry’s organizations and associations who have distinguished for their initiative, excellence and training activities. The winners of the 2016 SAFETY4SEA Awards are:
Neda Maritime received the SAFETY4SEA Excellence Award, sponsored by MacGregor, for the implementation of the Human Resilience campaign, introduced by Shell Oil Company, thus adopting a framework essentially capable of guaranteeing the strengthening of the crew with additional safety skills via Reflective Learning and Learning Engagement Tools. Other short-listed nominees for this category were: DNV GL, EMSA, Mitsui OSK Lines and UK P&I Club.
Fike received the SAFETY4SEA Initiative Award, sponsored by INSB, for its solution to detect oil mist in ship engine rooms using video analytics. Fike features a full line of fire alarm, fire detection and control and fire suppression solutions, including video image detection, to keep people and valuable assets safe. Other short-listed nominees for this category were: ISWAN, Medassist, SOS Campaign and Setel Hellas.
Magsaysay People received the SAFETY4SEA Training Award, sponsored by Dorian, for continuously investing in innovative training programs and modern facilities that help seagoing professionals gain a competitive advantage in the global maritime landscape. Other short-listed nominees for this category were: Angelicoussis Shipping Group, Hellenic Naval Academy, LR Marine Training and Videotel.
During
his
welcome
address Apostolos
Belokas, Founder and Managing Editor of SAFETY4SEA, as
the
Forum Chairman,
outlined
the
objectives
of
this
PRO
BONO
event,
including fostering safety excellence and sustainable shipping.
Presentations were given in six panels as follows:
Panel No. 1 – Safety Perspectives I
Apostolos-Belokas, Founder & Managing Editor, SAFETY4SEA, opened the forum presenting the results of “CSR4SEA Sustainability Survey’’ which revealed as key outcome that in terms of prioritization, the key target should be to raise awareness across the industry with respect to CSR. Furthermore, Mr Belokas presented the pioneering RISK4SEA project and provided trends and KPIs of recent PSC developments. He explained that RISK4SEA is a platform which benchmarks inspections statistics with the aim to reveal developing worrying trends and provide insight on how to optimize preparation for those trading in these areas. Finally, he stressed the fact that this innovative benchmarking service, which is a spinoff of SAFETY4SEA, includes Analytics, KPIs, Trends and other useful information.
Capt. Apostolos Skempes, Training Manager, Arcadia Shipmanagement Co Ltd, provided insight into ”Shaping a Safety Culture” and focused on the continuing efforts to improve and maintain safety performance. He highlighted how important is for companies to address the meaning of safety and require understanding, belief and cooperation by all into the organisation (shore and shipboard based) for the implementation and achievement of a safe working environment. In order to develop Safety Culture, the issues of each person’s attitude, behaviour, willingness and eventually effectiveness, into the assimilation and application of Company’s policies and procedures, need to be identified, assessed and be dealt with.
Jason Stefanatos, Senior Research Engineer, DNV GL, gave a presentation entitled “The voice of the Greek shipping community’’ in which he referred to a recent survey conducted by DNV GL among the Greek maritime community. Shipping companies were contacted for this survey and invited to answer certain questions on the topic of safety. Among issues under question was the perception of safety in the Greek shipping community as well as who may influence it and what can be done to improve safety levels. He focused on key findings and six main conclusions that came out, highlighting that this safety survey has clearly showed an industry which needs and wants to improve safety, however, is hampered by barriers.
Capt Panagiotis Nikiteas, HSQE Manager / DPA / CSO, Anangel Maritime Services, outlined the relationship of three important factors “Safety – Compliance – Behavior”. The objective of his presentation was to highlight the direct link between individual behavioral patterns and safety work places and the measures needed to achieve compliance irrespective of management model. His key message was that limits and enforcement measures can impact safe behavior by managing and influencing both learned characteristics and environmental & organizational factors.
Panel No. 2 – Safety Perspectives II
George Gaitas, Attorney, CHALOS & Co Law Firm, suggested some hot tips for avoiding the MARPOL-APPS criminal enforcement trap. As he explained, in light of a recent ruling, they obtained in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that the Chief Engineer of a foreign vessel is not criminally liable for failing to accurately maintain the oil record book, much of the value of this good ruling is lost by policies and procedures in the SMS manuals of companies that state exactly the opposite. He argued that it is these policies and procedures that should be changed.
Stefanos N. Roulakis, Attorney, Blank Rome, gave a presentation entitled “Handling Marine Casualties: An Analysis of New Reporting Requirements and Risks of Criminal Prosecutions“. During his presentation, he stated that vessel owners and operators worldwide continue to face criminal liability for safety-related incidents, therefore, it is key to have strategies to mitigate risk. It is essential to be familiar with reporting requirements, especially the U.S. Coast Guard’s recently updated casualty reporting requirements. However, Mr Roulakis noted that while vessels have response plans in the case of serious incidents, many companies do not. He highlighted how critical is to develop a management response plan for mitigating risk and also an essential part of an effective management response plan is detailing immediate means to contact counsel.
Spyridon Kostopoulos, Surveyor, Europe Division, ABS, referred to current ”Safety Considerations” in presentation, outlining the ABS commitment to continually improve the effectiveness of health, safety, quality and environmental performance and management system. Mr. Kostopoulos discussed the key elements which are the foundations of a strong safety culture and how they contribute to improving safety within the organizations and the marine environmentn.
Panel No. 3 – Loss Prevention
Elias Psyllos, Business development Director, T&T Salvage, gave a presentation regarding “Lessons learned from Liquefaction Incident Response” focusing on two different nickel ore liquefaction cases with vessel in distress in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea in which his company has been recently involved. He explained the method that his company followed; salvage teams equipped with appropriate salvage assets mobilized from the company’s international salvage base in Singapore, Asia to attend the casualties on of them aground at an iconic beach with the threat of an environmental disaster imminent if the vessel was not immediately afloat. In both cases, T&T’s salvage engineering teams developed a salvage plan to reposition the vessels in a port of refuge and thereafter regain their respective trading abilities. This method, he stated, has received praise from industry engineering experts as well as the insurance industry for finding a solution to a chronic problem in the specific ore trade.
Cedric Chatteleyn, Claims Director, Thomas Miller Hellas, provided insight into the “SOLAS Verified gross mass (VGM) Challenge”. Following a recent amendment to the SOLAS, it is now a condition for loading a packed container on a ship that the container has a verified gross mass (VGM). The shipper should provide a verified gross mass to the carrier and the carrier is entitled to refuse to load if this information has not been provided. This requirement became mandatory on 1st July 2016 and applies globally. It is therefore now a violation of SOLAS to load a packed container onto a ship if the ship operator or the terminal operator do not have a verified gross mass.
Rick Jeffress, Director, Business Development, Fike Corporation, explained how by using Video Analytics, operators could minimize fire risk referring to company’s solution. He stated that video cameras are widely used in shipboard machinery spaces; Fike Video Analytics processes the video from these cameras, mounted in various hazard areas, to intelligently monitor and detect the unique signatures of hazardous conditions. A shipboard camera network combined with Fike Video Analytics creates a highly efficient means for rapidly detecting oil mist, a precursor to a potential fire or explosion. The system can be monitored by shipboard personnel and linked to automation and safety management systems, allowing critical time to take action before disaster occurs.
Panel No. 4 – Incident Investigation
Mark Bull, Marine Consultant, Trafalgar Navigation explained the “Revolution underway on the bridge and how the rules need to be re-written”. He said that the provision of ECDIS on board today’s merchant ships is causing a ‘revolution’ in the way they are navigated. It is the final piece in the jigsaw that commenced many years ago with radar. Gone is the need for pacing backwards and forwards between instruments and charts but to remain close to where all the output information is located. Mr Bull noted that like all revolutions, issues that were never considered crop up, and ECDIS is no exception. Now more than ever before is the time to listen to those problems from the ships. He suggested getting ready to change some of the rules that were created and are unworkable, thus, he highlighted that above all an ECDIS mindset is required.
Danielle Centeno, Asst. VP, Loss Prevention & Survey Compliance, American Club, analysed the “risks of a paperless chart system and incidents resulting from the improper use of ECDIS“. With the roll-out of the ECDIS requirements still underway there will be more vessels embracing electronic navigational charts as the primary means of navigation over a paper chart system. In his presentation, Mr Centeno explored three different grounding incidents resulting from the improper use of ECDIS equipment and identified the risks associated with implementing these technologies.
Stelios Bellas, Director, Hellenic Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (HBMCI), discussed about the subject of “Marine accidents and Human Factor’’. He stated that most casualties are the result either of equipment failure or human error but commonly it’s a combination of both, with human error to be the dominant factor. The reason behind any specific casualty is in most cases complex and hard to attribute to a single cause. He noted that accidents are mostly due to mistakes of a single person, but in fact the whole organization is involved, both onboard and ashore. While the immediate cause of an accident may be the result of the actions of an individual, these frequently are the result of factors in the local work environment which are a consequence of organizational factors.
Panel No. 5 – Security
Apostolos Belokas, Founder & Managing Editor, SAFETY4SEA, provided a “Critical Review of 12 years of ISPS Code implementation” highlighting a wide number of deficiencies in way of design, implementation and monitoring of the Code, concluding that the Code has failed to address any real life threat such as piracy & armed robbery, stowaways, smuggling of weapons/drugs, cargo theft and money laundering. He noted that there’s no IMO feedback on ISPS Code revision and/or implementation so far and that the industry BMPs for Anti Piracy are not tuned with the Code, concluding that the ISPS Code need to be revisited and/or generally overhauled under new light.
Dimitrios Maniatis, Business Development Manager, Diaplous Maritime Services, provided an overview of the “Piracy status East and West of Africa”. He stated that although in the early days MarSec was an inspiring business, in reality no one knew what they were doing. For Somalia, he noted that KPI’s indicate that the risk of a resurgence of Somali based piracy is inevitable. Then, he focused on the piracy in Nigeria and in some misconceptions that exist for their activity. He referred to recent reported incidents in the area and closed his presentation with advice on what maritime security measures can be implemented.
Rod Lingard, Joint Managing Director, Thomas Miller War Risks Services Ltd, gave a presentation entitling the ‘’Anatomy of West African maritime kidnap” to explain why kidnapping for ransom has increased recently in the Gulf of Guinea and assess whether this increase will continue. The Gulf of Guinea is currently thought to be the most dangerous region for seafarers. According to a recent report by Ocean Beyond Piracy, the total number of kidnaps for ransom during 2016 in the Gulf of Guinea has already surpassed the total number of incidents recorded by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) for 2015. Mr Lingard described what happens during a kidnapping and provided some insight into the training available for shipping companies and crews.
Panel No. 6 – Human Element
Marlon Rono, President, Magsaysay People Resources Corporation & Executive Chairman, Magsaysay Maritime Corporation, presented the “Training and Development Challenges” from the crew manager perspective. He noted that the current global shipping crisis is equally challenging for crew managers as ship owners and managers continue to implement ways to reduce costs, including crew wages and benefits reduction, re-organization, downsizing of crew complement and suspension of training and development initiatives. However, Mr Rono highlighted that training and development should remain indispensable because as trade becomes complex and as the world moves toward digitalization, there is a great need to be able to supply seafarers whose skills meet the technical requirements of modern vessels and the commercial needs of ship owners and their customers. As far as vessel operation is concerned, having the right people who can do the job right remains to be the greatest competitive advantage one can have. To help address the talent shortage reported by BIMCO, Mr Rono advised stakeholders to put in efforts to attract the new generation of seafarers and promote seagoing careers.
Adam Lewis, Manager, Operations & Training, International Maritime Employers’ Council Ltd, focused his presentation on the “Recruitment and Training of Generation Z”. Mr. Lewis explained that those born between 2001 and 2011 are considered as Generation Z . In 2017, they will reach the age of 16, thus they may start to be recruited into cadet programmes worldwide. He stated that the blend between developments in maritime education and the employment of a more technologically advanced generation, may well lead to greater advances in maritime safety. Therefore, in 5 years’ time, cadets may not be learning collision regulations from books, but instead be simulating thousands of scenarios on a simple tablet device. This combination could lead to much greater competence and understanding, resulting in safer operations.
Michael Røssland, Vice President, Norsafe Academy focused on the “New SOLAS requirements for lifeboat servicing“. He referred to the new resolution and amendment to SOLAS approved by IMO regarding requirements for periodic service of lifesaving equipment. Mr Røssland explained that this resolution requires documented competency and approval of personnel conducting services and outlined necessary actions for vessels, shipowners, flag, class and servicing companies to comply.
All sessions ended with a round table discussion and exchange with the audience.
Finally Apostolos Belokas as the Forum Chairman thanked the delegates for their participation, the sponsors for their support and the speakers for their excellent presentations and also the organizing team of the event for their contribution towards forum objectives. Mr Belokas also congratulated all winners and short-listed nominees of the SAFETY4SEA Awards for their contribution to a safer industry.
Explore more at http://www.safety4sea.com/forum/2016-safety4sea-athens-forum/
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