Marine Safety and
Environmental Protection

Other IMO Activities Page Index:

MSC and MEPC Circulars

The Maritime Safety (MSC) and the Marine Environment Protection (MEPC) Committees issue circulars to assist Administrations and others in interpreting the Conventions, Codes and guidelines.

For the convenience of members and others, Panel O-44 maintains a selective listing of those MSC and MEPC circulars that are particularly relevant to O-44 activities at www.sname.org/committees/tech_ops/O44/msccircs.html.

You may also access all of the posted MSC and MEPC circulars on the IMO home page (www.imo.org). (On the IMO home page, click on the "Circulars" link in the left-side column, and then click on the "Maritime Safety Committee" or "Marine Environmental Protection Committee" links in the right-side column).

A list is available which explains ALL the IMO circular acronyms and effective dates.

Contact - Jim Person

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Selected IMO News

IMO News magazine is available on-line

IMO News is published four times a year and is free of charge. The on-line issues are available and may be downloaded at:
http://www.imo.org/Newsroom/mainframe.asp?topic_id=11

Outcomes of BLG 12 (February 2008) and MEPC 57 (March-April 2008)

BLG 12 met on February 4-8, 2008, and competed draft amendments to Annex VI to the MARPOL Convention and to the NOx Technical Code to reduce harmful emissions from ships. Further details can be found in the press releases regarding BLG 12 action on MARPOL VI. These were submitted for consideration by the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 57).

MEPC 57 met March 31 to April 4, 2008. The Committee approved the amendments to MARPOL Annex VI and the NOx Technical Code to reduce harmful emissions from ships. These will now be circulated among member nations, with a view to adoption at MEPC 58 (October 2008); the revisions will enter into force in 2010. The Committee also reviewed the current draft of a proposed ship recylcling convention, and continued its work relating to the Ballast Water Management Convention. Further details can be found in the press releases regarding MEPC 57 action on MARPOL VI and other MEPC 57 decisions and action.

Outcome of MSC 83 (October 2007)

MSC 83 met in Copenhagen on October 3-12, 2007. Among its accomplishments were key decisions relating to the implementation of the Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) System, adoption of proposed amendments to SOLAS relating to the provision of mobile satellite communication services in the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), further development of goal-based standards for new ship construction, and discussion of maritime security issues. Further details can be found in the MSC 83 press release.

IMO Convention on Control of Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems (AFS) (ratified September 2007)

IMO Convention on Ballast Water Management (BWM) (as of September 2007)

On February 13, 2004, IMO adopted a new Convention concerning management of ballast water: the "International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments." The new Convention will enter into force 12 months after it has been ratified by at least 30 countries representing at least 35 percent of the world merchant shipping tonnage. As of September 30, 2007, the BWM Convention has been ratified by 10 countries, representing 3.42% of the world shipping tonnage.

For more information, see the IMO BWM Convention web page.

Oil Fuel Tank Protection (entered into force August 2007)

The regulations on oil fuel tank protection include requirements for a maximum capacity of 2,500 cubic meters per individual tank, their protected locations, and an outflow performance standard, as an alternative. MEPC 54/5 contains the draft MARPOL fuel tank regulation, which was adopted at MEPC 54 (March 2006) as MARPOL Annex I, Reg 12A, and entered into force for ships contracted after August 1, 2007.

Outcome of MEPC 56 (July 2007)

An IMO press release summarizes the outcome of MEPC 56, which met in London on July 9-13, 2007.

Outcome of BLG 11 (April 2007)

This IMO press release discusses the outcome of BLG 11 (April 16-20, 2007). This sub-committee has been working very diligently on revising MARPOL Annex VI concerning emission of air pollutants from ships. An intersessional working group met in Oslo in November 2006, and reconvened at BLG 11. The sub-committee recommended to MEPC that another intersessional working group meeting should be held before the end of 2007.

International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC) admitted as NGO (November 2005)

The International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC) was granted Non-Government Organization (NGO) status by IMO in November 2005. In 2002, ITTC's assistance was requested by DE and SLF for the revision of the High-Speed Craft Code; in particular the Interim Guidelines for the conduct of high-speed craft model tests. The model test guidelines have been reviewed by ITTC's Stability in Waves Specialist Committee and a proposal with revised guidelines was submitted to DE 49 (as document DE 49/5/2) by ITTC and the Netherlands.

The proposed model test guidelines and their inclusion in the amended 2000 HSC Code were accepted by the Sub-Committee at DE 49. This is typical of the technical support that ITTC can provide to IMO. We anticipate SLF requesting ITTC's assistance on numerous issues.

SNAME has been supporting ITTC with their web home since 2002. We invite you to visit their website at: http://ittc.sname.org.

Air Pollution Regulations (entered into force May 2005)

The air pollution regulations, Annex VI of MARPOL 73/78, were ratified by the requisite 15th State on May 18, 2004. Therefore the regulations entered into force on May 19, 2005.

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Current IMO activities

Current IMO activities are discussed; these will be periodically updated to reflect decisions and actions of the committees and sub-committees.

Goal-Based Structural Standards - GBS (formerly - Robust Ships and Quality Building Standards)

There is a view among some member countries and observer organizations that IMO should play a more active role in setting basic "new construction" standards to ensure that future ships are more robust than ships built to current class standards. They also believe that newbuilding survey and supervision during construction have declined.

• establish a design philosophy aimed at achieving adequate structural strength;
• establish a "fatigue life" standard;
• establish permissible shear forces and bending moments for vulnerable ship types (such as tankers and bulk carriers);
• establish a minimum longitudinal strength requirement for vulnerable ship types; and
• establish a "newbuilding survey procedure" to ensure proper attention during construction.

However, there are also opposing opinions that the class societies, not IMO, are the proper purveyors of design and construction standards. The documents submitted to date on this subject are:

GBS - additional activities

Documents for MSC 78 - 83 are posted in "selected MSC documents" at the end of this web page.

Contacts - Paul Cojeen or Jim Person or
               Jaideep Sirkar, chair of T&R Steering Committee or
               CAPT Patrick Little, co-ordinator of Pilot Project

MSC Press Releases - includes GBS - as well as other public source links

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General Cargo Ships Safety

The Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA) has undertaken an analysis of the safety records for various types and sizes of vessels. The general conclusion from the analysis is that certain sizes of general cargo ships appear particularly vulnerable to loss. Ships in the range 6000 to 9000 dwt have a significantly higher loss rate than average, whereas the differences are much less marked for larger or smaller ships. Small coasters appear to have a higher occupational fatality rate than larger general cargo ships. Older ships (20 years or more) also have higher loss rates. RINA suggested that documents should be prepared for submission as the NGO.

Following some discussions between the two societies, RINA revised the proposed document. SNAME agreed to the final document, and as an informational document it was submitted to IMO for the 77th session of MSC.

No Administration subsequently stepped forward to co-sponsor a paper with RINA for MSC 78. However, after several years without any activity, in 2006 the Russian Federation submitted MSC 82/21/19 which proposed adding this issue to the work programme, as Agenda item 20. The MSC report suggests that there may be a Working Group at MSC 85.

Contact - Jaideep Sirkar at jaideep.sirkar@uscg.mil, Chair of T&R Steering Committee

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IMO Activities - Archives

Below are listed completed IMO activities that may be of interest to the naval architecture community. For more details, go the IMO archives page at http://www.sname.org/committees/tech_ops/O44/archive.html

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Committee and Sub-Committee Reports and Selected Documents

Selected documents for the most recent meeting sessions of those IMO committees and sub-committees that work on naval architectural issues follow. The annotated agendas present the specific agenda items for that session, the working papers report on the deliberations of the working groups during the session, and the reports summarize the decisions and future action of the committee. To keep the following listing of documents managable older documents have been tranfered to another web page titled IMO Activities Archive.

Documents for the Sub-Committee on Stability, Load Lines, and on Fishing Vessels Safety (SLF) can be found via the O-44 Activities web page. For information on the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment (DE) contact the U.S. Coast Guard's Systems Engineering Division (CG-3PSE-3). For information on the Sub-Committee on Fire Protection (FP), contact the U.S. Coast Guard's Lifesaving and Fire Safety Standards Division (CG-3PSE-4).

Maritime Safety Committee (MSC)

Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC)

Ship Design and Equipment Sub-Committee (DE)

Bulk Liquids and Gases Sub-Committee (BLG)

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