Officer of the Watch

Examining ECDIS Education

March 3, 2014 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

Built on the advent of modern electronics, ECDIS is bringing in a whole new level of performance by transferring all chart work elements onto an electronic display screen. This allows the seamless integration of Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC), GPS position fixing and other navigational tools, including radar, echo sounder, AIS and NAVTEX. Multiple functions are made available with just one click on the computer keyboard, a tap on an icon or the use of a mouse. Suddenly, the supporting tools needed to operate paper charts are history.

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Filed Under: OOW FOCUS Tagged With: ECDIS, Electronic Navigational Charts, HSSQE, navigation, training

Piracy in West Africa: A New Model (Unfortunately)?

February 28, 2014 by Officer of the Watch 1 Comment

While piracy attacks seem to be on the decline off the coast of Somalia, pirates may be warming up in West Africa. As I and others have blogged about before, the Gulf of Guinea, as well the Nigerian Delta, have recently turned into hotbeds of piracy. The Nigerian Delta in particular, because of vast amounts of oil production which takes place there annually, has attracted potential pirates interested in seizing oil and selling it for profit on the black market.

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Filed Under: OOW FOCUS Tagged With: gulf of guinea, HSSQE, Kerala, Nigeria, piracy, west africa

Shipping the Final EU Climate Frontier

February 27, 2014 by Officer of the Watch 1 Comment

During the annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change summit, it is worth remembering that there is one huge industry that has so far managed to evade any formalised efforts at emissions reductions. Every industry and transport sector in the European Union has greenhouse-gas emissions reduction measures in place, except for the shipping sector. The EU has established goals on the emissions reductions it wants to achieve from the sector, but seems to have no intention of enacting anything that will bring it anywhere near those goals, anytime soon.

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Filed Under: OOW FOCUS Tagged With: CO2, European Union, greenhouse gas, HSSQE, NOx, Ship emissions, SOx

Monthly Piracy Report for January 2014

February 25, 2014 by Officer of the Watch 5 Comments

During January 2014 piracy activity increased in West Africa with the Oil Tanker Kerala hijacking taking place as far south as Luanda, Angola. From the four kidnappings that were reported during last month, the three of them took place in Nigeria while one occurred in Equatorial Guinea. On the other hand attacks (mostly robberies) in Southeast Asia were down in January 2014 from December 2013. Up until the date this report is being published the areas of maritime piracy related incidents worldwide are as follows:

Arabian Sea: 1
East Africa: 1
South China Sea: 8
West Africa: 3

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Filed Under: PIRACY REPORT Tagged With: anti-piracy, armed robbery, east africa, piracy, somalia, south china sea, west africa

Life at Sea Sailing with the MLC

February 24, 2014 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

We had arrived in China at just about the same time as Typhoon Utor. Which was a bit of a problem, since our cameraman Damien Riunaud and I had travelled to Shenzhen to board the Singapore-bound APL Boston container ship and produce video footage documenting life at sea. The trip was meant to coincide with the coming into force of the ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention (MLC, 2006), also known as the Seafarers’ Bill of Rights.

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Filed Under: FEATURED AUTHORS Tagged With: Crew, ILO, life onboard, Maritime Labour Convention, MLC 2006, seafarer

Russia Chooses ‘Soft’ Approach to the Arctic

February 20, 2014 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

Recent initiatives in the Arctic Council show that Arctic nations have chosen business as a universal language of rapprochement. Russia’s limited military presence should be viewed as an opportunity to build a safer economic environment without prejudicing the security of anyone.

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Filed Under: OOW FOCUS Tagged With: Commercial, energy, oil, Prirazlomnaya Platform, Russian Arctic

The Year of the Horse and the Importance of the Asian Market

February 18, 2014 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

The Spring Festival celebrations are over and the Year of the Horse has been well and truly welcomed in, but our thoughts remain with Asia and the importance of the Asian shipping business, both globally as well as in the Isle of Man.

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Filed Under: FEATURED AUTHORS Tagged With: asian shipping, Commercial, Isle of Man, registry, shipping company

Greece Remains at the Top of Shipping Economy

February 16, 2014 by Officer of the Watch 1 Comment

Despite the economic downturn, Greek shipowners have proved once again to be the leaders of global shipping industry. It is worthy to note that they control the 16,25% of global fleet in terms of dwt, while they own the 23,5% and 18,5% of total tankers and bulkers respectively.

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Filed Under: FEATURED AUTHORS Tagged With: Commercial, economic crisis, finance, Greece, new buildings, shipping

Grounding of Chinese Cargo Vessel – Investigation Report

January 27, 2014 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

This incident investigation report refers to the grounding of Chinese registered Cargo Ship. At 2220 on 7 May 2011, the Chinese registered river-trade cargo vessel Zhong Fu Fa Zhan departed the loading berth at Tseung Kwan O, in Junk Bay, Hong Kong after loaded a cargo of 2,200 tonnes of soil for discharge in Taishan, China. The weather was fine and the visibility was good. The navigation equipment and main engines were in normal working condition. The Master was on duty alone in the bridge after departure. The Chief Officer took over the watch from the Master at 0000 on 8 May 2011, also alone at the bridge. At about 0031 and 0032 on 8 May 2011, the Chief Officer made a report to VTC by radio. About 40 seconds later, the ship ran aground on the shoal of Adamasta Rock in North Cheung Chau Traffic Separation Scheme while the Chief Officer was making entries into ship log book.

Monthly Piracy Report for December 2013

January 22, 2014 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

On a monthly basis the Officer of the Watch Blog publishes a report regarding maritime piracy incidents. The report focuses mainly on vessels of the Merchant Navy (Bulk Carrier, Chemical Tankers, Containerships etc). Up until the date this report is being published the areas of maritime piracy related incidents worldwide are as follows:

Arabian Sea: 1
East Africa: 3
Malacca Strait: 3
North Atlantic Ocean: 1
South America: 2
South China Sea: 11
West Africa: 4