Page 75: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 1997)

pill risk in the waters of north- astern U.S. states, through a ooperative process known as egional risk assessment.

The regional risk assessment ;eam operated under the guidance }f a steering committee chaired by members of the U.S. Coast Guard,

The American Waterways

Operators and the Rhode Island

Department of Environmental

Management. Committee mem- bers attended regular meetings over a seven-month period in order to consider ways of reducing the likelihood of marine accidents in the Northeastern states. The work of the committee reportedly includ- ed an in-depth review of all vessel operations throughout the region.

The team's recommendations include a region-specific focus on improved vessel communications, voyage planning, barge retrieval and anchoring systems and ligh- tering protocols. The full report of the team is expected to be released shortly.

According to steering committee member Capt. Eric Williams of the First Coast Guard District's

Marine Safety Division, "I strongly believe we will improve the safe transportation of petroleum through our cooperative efforts to make positive changes in the oper- ations of towboats and barges in the Northeast."

For more information, contact

Capt. Williams at tel: (617) 223- 8439.

STCW Amendments Enter

Into Force

As previously indicated in past

MR/EN issues, on Feb. 1, the 1995 amendments to the International

Convention on Standards of

Training, Certification and

Watchkeeping (STCW) for

Seafarers, 1978, entered into force.

According to IMO (International

Maritime Organization), the amendments represent almost a complete re-writing of the

Convention, which has so far been ratified by 120 countries whose combined merchant fleet totals 95 percent of the world fleet.

The main aims of the revisions to the Convention are: • To transfer all detailed techni- cal requirements to an associat- ed STCW Code, Part A of which was made mandatory and also entered into force on Feb. 1; • To clarify the skills and com-

March, 1997 petence required; • To require administrations to maintain direct control over and endorse the qualifications of those masters, officers and radio personnel they authorize to serve on their ships; and • To make parties to the

Convention accountable to each other, through IMO, for the proper implementation of the

Convention and the quality of their training and certification activities.

The amendments take into account developments that have occurred in shipping since 1978, including the use of simulators for training in the use of radar and automatic radar plotting aids, which has been made mandatory.

Provisions have also been intro- duced for the monitoring of these standards by a quality assurance system.

The revised Convention permits f f n t 0 0

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