Page 16: of Marine News Magazine (February 2023)

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Column

Ferries

Rising to the challenge

By Mike Corrigan, CEO, Interferry

Interferry CEO Mike Corrigan explains the driving forces behind the global trade association’s imperative to keep its foot on the gas.

est networking initiative. These days we rank as the voice

Interferry and its members of the global ferry industry, which includes consultative scaled some demanding peaks in 2022 but, to state the status at regulatory linchpin the International Maritime obvious, our work is never done. Facing an equally busy Organization (IMO) and worldwide input to governmen- schedule of challenges and opportunities in the year ahead, tal authorities.

we need to keep climbing – a truism that has been memo- Next stop for the conference is Australia in November, rably expressed as ‘the top of one mountain is always the but I’ll return to this subject after outlining the pressing bottom of another’. issues that currently demand Interferry’s equal attention.

Our 46th annual conference in Seattle last October was Right now we are digesting outcomes from the IMO’s de? nitely one of the peaks, not least due to an event-record latest Marine Environment Protection Committee meet- attendance of more than 500 participants. It spoke vol- ing, which took place in December. In a key part of the umes for our evolution from US origins in 1976 as a mod- agenda, discussion was renewed on regulations for dras- © sheilaf2002 / Adobe Stock 16 | MN February 2023