The Main Conventions Administered by the IMO

3.3. The Main Conventions Administered by the IMO

The IMO has responsibility for 29 Conventions and related Protocols under the headings of Maritime Safety, Marine Pollution, Liability and Compensation, and Other Subjects. A

26 Details of the NGOs and IGOs and their relationships with other organizations can be found via the IMO website. Available online at:: http://www.imo.org/About/mainframe.asp?topic_id=1639 for relationships; http://www.imo.org/About/mainframe.asp?topic_id=851 for NGOs which have been granted consultative status with the IMO; and http://www.imo.org/About/mainframe.asp?topic_id=846 for IGOs which have concluded agreements of cooperation with the IMO

website. Available online at: http://www.imo.org/About/mainframe.asp?topic_id=312

27 Details of IMO Structure

can be found via

the IMO

70 Angela Carpenter

complete list of Conventions is available from the IMO website 28 , with links to further details of the individual Conventions also available. A Summary of Status of the various

Conventions is also available and identifies date of entry into force of convention and any related protocols, the number of Contracting States (signatories to the specific Convention)

and the percentage of world tonnage (world shipping fleet) represented by those states 29 . For example, the IMO Convention, which entered into force on 17 March 1958, has 169

Contracting States which represent 97.34% of world shipping tonnage. Details of the individual states which have acceded to or ratified the various Conventions and Protocols 30

are also available.

Table 2. IMO Committees and Sub-Committees

IMO Committees &Sub- Committees

Brief Description and Role

Highest technical body of IMO which considers a wide range of activities including: aids to Maritime Safety Committee

navigation; construction and equipment of vessels; handling dangerous cargoes; and (MSC)

hydrographic information. It considers and submits recommendations and guidelines on safety to the Assembly. It also adopts amendments to Conventions including SOLAS (see Section 3.3.2).

Marine Environment Considers any matter concerning prevention and control of pollution from ships, including Protection Committee

adoption and amendment of conventions and other measures to ensure that regulations are (MEPC)

enforced. Established in 1967 to deal with legal issues following the sinking of the Torrey Canyon –

Legal Committee deals with any legal matters relating to the IMO including legal instruments adopted by the IMO.

Technical Co-operation Considers any matter concerned with implementation of technical co-operation projects or Committee

in the field of technical co-operation.

Facilitation Committee Concerned with the elimination of unnecessary “red tape” in international shipping. Sub-Committees which assist with the work of the MEC and MEPC:

Bulk Liquids and Gas (BLG) Carriage of Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargoes and Containers (DSC) Fire Protection (FP)

Sub-Committees

Radio-communications and Search and Rescue (COMSAR) Safety of Navigation (NAV) Ship Design and Equipment (DE) Stability and Load Lines and Fishing Vessels Safety (SLF) Standards of Training and Watchkeeping (STW) Flag State Implementation (FSI)

28 A Complete List of Conventions for which the IMO has responsibility is available from the IMO website. Available online at: http://www.imo.org/About/mainframe.asp?topic_id=260 with links to individual Conventions being available via a quick link on the left of the IMO homepage at http://www.imo.org/ Hard copies and other documents are also available from the IMO website publications section and from distributors worldwide.

29 A Summary of Status of Convention at 30 June 2010, including details of the number of Contracting States and the % of world tonnage (as measured by Lloyd‟s Register/Fairplay →orld Fleet Statistics in December β009) is available from the IMO website. Available online at: http://www.imo.org/Conventions/mainframe.asp?topic_id=247

30 Status of Conventions by Member State at 30 June 2010 is available via the IMO website. Available online at: http://www.imo.org/includes/blastDataOnly.asp/data_id=29017/status-x.xls

International Protection of the Marine Environment

This section will examine five Conventions out of 29 administered by the IMO (at September 2010). These Conventions, together with their various Protocols and amendments, are monitored for compliance under a system of vessel inspections conducted by a number of regional Memoranda on Port State Control regimes, the scope and main activities of which are discussed in Section 4 of this chapter.

3.3.1. International Convention on Load Lines 1966 and its Protocol of 1988 (LLC):

The Load Lines Convention was adopted in April 1966 and entered into force in July 1968 and at June 2010 had 159 Contracting States representing 99.04% of world tonnage. A subsequent Protocol of November 1988 (which entered into force in February 2000) was adopted in order to bring the LLC certification requirement in line with requirements contained in the SOLAS and MARPOL Conventions discussed below. An earlier version of this Convention had been adopted in 1930 but even prior to that there was a long history of using such marks on vessels over many centuries. For example, the United Kingdom had introduced a system of lines though a Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 and these lines are sometimes known as Plimsoll Lines after the Br itish MP of the 1860‟s who developed them.

The LLC was introduced to help ensure the safety of vessels by preventing them from being over-loaded and to ensure they remained watertight and did not sink if they were damaged. Highly visible markings are placed amidships on vessels and these provide an easily visible indication that a vessel is weather and water-tight. Load lines are calculated based on a principle known as reserve buoyancy ( the difference between the volume of a vessel below the waterline and below the lowest opening which cannot be made watertight). It takes into account the salinity and temperature of water in different regions to ensure that a vessel will remain watertight when sailing in those waters. The types of seawater represented by load lines are: tropical fresh water (TF); fresh water (F); tropical seawater (T); summer temperate seawater (S); winter temperate seawater (W); and winter North Atlantic (WNA). A similar system is used for vessels specifically transporting timber.

3.3.2. International Convention on Safety of Life at Sea 1974 and its Protocols of 1978 and 1988 (SOLAS):

The SOLAS Convention was originally adopted in 1914 following the sinking of the Titanic 34 , which subsequent versions being adopted in 1929, 1948 and 1960 . The 1974

Convention entered into force in May 1980 and, at June 2010, had 159 Contracting Parties. SOLAS 1974, together with its 1978 and 1988 Protocols, was developed specifically so that it could be kept up to date in light of new technological developments, and uses a system of

“tacit acceptance”. Under this system, any amendments will automatically enter into force by

a specified date unless sufficient objections have been received from an agreed number of states to prevent this from occurring. Amendments to SOLAS can come from meetings of the Maritime Safety Committee or following a Conference of Contracting Governments of the IMO.

34 A summary of the SOLAS Convention is available from the IMO Website. Available online at: http://www.imo.org/Conventions/contents.asp?topic_id=257&doc_id=647

72 Angela Carpenter

Amendments normally come into force in as little as 24 months from the original proposal being circulated to all Contracting Governments to entry into force. However, this timeframe can be accelerated to 18 months in exceptional circumstances such as in the example of a 1988 Amendment of April 1988 which entered into force in October 1989 and which came about as a result of the sinking of the car ferry Herald of Free Enterprise in March 1987. In this incident, which resulted in the loss of 193 lives, the car ferry capsized while leaving its berth in Zeebrugge harbour in Belgium as a result of its cargo loading doors not being correctly closed. The 1988 Amendment included measures to improve monitoring of doors and cargo areas to ensure that these were correctly closed and made water-tight and also for improvements in emergency lighting to aid evacuation of a vessel. Five-yearly surveys of passenger vessels were also introduced to ensure that such vessels remained stable, particularly if there had been any change in weight or stability in the intervening period.

SOLAS is designed to ensure the safety of vessels, through a system of certification and inspection. Vessels are required to meet minimum standards in the areas of construction, equipment on board and in their operations. Ships are registered to sail under the flag of a specific state (flag state) but can be inspected by other states if there are grounds to believe that a ship is not meeting the requirements of SOLAS. Customarily, a state which controls the territorial waters through which a ship is sailing is known as a Coastal State while a state into whose port a vessel calls is known as a Port State.

The SOLAS Convention contains articles on general obligations and the amendment procedure, followed by an Annex which, at September 2010, contained 12 Chapters covering areas such as General Provisions, Construction and Fire Safety measures, Life-saving appliances, Radio Communications, Carriage of Cargoes or Dangerous Goods and other measures necessary to ensure the safety and security of vessels both at sea and in ports. In total SOLAS has been adapted nearly 40 times through Protocols or amendments between 1978 and 2009. An example of an amendment to SOLAS was the introduction of a new chapter, Chapter XI, on Special Measures to Enhance Safety, in May 1994. Chapter XI, which entered into force in January 1996, sets out regulations on vessel surveys and inspections including those for bulk carriers and tankers under MARPOL 73/78, and also allows port state control officers to inspect foreign vessels where there are clear grounds to believe that essential safety measures are not being carried out. Although it notes that port state control inspections normally only cover the checking of certificates and documents to ensure they are valid, more detailed inspections can be conducted and certain procedures such as fire and abandon ship drills or machinery operation may also be examined to ensure that these are conducted correctly. More recently measures covering Chapter XI were adopted by

a Diplomatic Conference on Maritime Security in December 2002 to create Chapters XI –1 and XI – 2 which deal with improving maritime security at the ship/port interface and for vessels at sea (including mobile offshore drilling units).

3.3.3. International Convention on the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973 and its Protocol of 1978 (MARPOL 73/78):

The MARPOL Convention was originally introduced in 1973 and a Protocol was introduced in 1978. These two elements now make up a main international convention which covers prevention of pollution of the marine environment from ships, either as a result of operational activities such as the cleaning out of tanks, or resulting from accidents, and the Convention also contains regulations aimed specifically at reducing pollution from oil

International Protection of the Marine Environment

platforms and drilling rigs. There were 150 contracting states to MARPOL Annexes I and II by June 2010, representing 99.14% of world tonnage (with smaller numbers for Annexes III to VI which entered into force between 1988 and 2005, and which are discussed later in this section).

MARPOL 73/78 was, however, pre-dated by OILPOL, a 1954 Convention which covered only pollution of the sea by oil through routine tanker operations. OILPOL came about as a result of increasing complaints about oil spills, particularly in European waters, following increased demand from Middle East crude oil after World War II. As a result of the delay in creating IMCO (later IMO and discussed in Section 3.1) the United Kingdom government set out to develop domestic legislation on oil pollution which would also be acceptable internationally. In 1954, it sponsored the International Conference on the Pollution of the Sea which took place in London and which was attended by delegates of 31 countries representing 95% of world shipping. Despite political problems and the United States representatives being unable to sign an international convention, the OILPOL Convention was finally agreed and established “prohibited zones” (at least 50 miles from the nearest land) into which oil or oily mixtures of more than 100 parts per million (ppm) of oil could not be discharged. Secretariat functions of OILPOL (which was amended in 1962, 1969 and 1971) were dealt with by the UK Government until finally being transferred to the IMO in 1958, once the IMO Convention entered into force.

With recognition that most of the vessel-source pollution entering the marine environment came from operational discharges from ships and not from major accidents, MARPOL 1973 was adopted, incorporating OILPOL 1954 and its amendments as its Annex

I. In addition, Annexes covering pollution from noxious liquid substances (Annex II), Harmful Substances in Packaged Form (Annex III), Sewage (Annex IV), Garbage (Annex V) and most recently Air Pollution (Annex VI) are covered by MARPOL 73/78 with full text of

this Convention appearing in Consolidated Editions of around 500 pages in length 35 . States which ratified the MARPOL 73/78 Convention were originally required only to implement

Annex I as technical problems for some states concerning Annex II led to a three year delay before that Annex became binding. Annexes III, IV and V were made optional annexes and so that, even through states had to implement Annexes I and II, they were able to opt out of the three additional Annexes. This resulted in it taking many more years before sufficient state ratifications had occurred for theose Annexes to enter into force. Annex VI covering air pollution was developed and entered into force more than 25 years after the original MARPOL Convention was ratified.

Each Annex contains information on what constitutes the substances covered by it – summarised in Table 3 (which also provides brief details of Annex history including recent amendments), information on different types of vessels and standards applicable to them, certification requirements, how the Annex is to be applied by signatory states, Special Areas (where discharges may be totally prohibited), exemptions for ships such as military vessels, and many other requirements. For example, Annex I on Pollution by Oil included 9 Chapters,

26 Regulations and 9 Appendices in the 2002 Consolidated Edition 36 , amounting to nearly 200 pages in that publication.

35 Consolidation Editions of MARPOL 73/78 have been published in 1991, 1997, 2002 and 2006, as a result of its continued development. However, since Amendments occur frequently, details are available from the main IMO website. Available online at: http://www.imo.org/Conventions/contents.asp?doc_id678&topic-id=258

36 MARPOL 73/78 Consolidated Edition 2002. Pub: IMO, London, 2002.

74 Angela Carpenter

One of the main aims of MARPOL 73/78 is the elimination of intentional pollution of the marine environment by oil and other substances and to minimise the risk of accidental pollution. One of its main requirements is that all state parties to the convention should take action to prevent pollution of the marine environment resulting from ships discharging harmful substances. Also included within the various MARPOL 73/78 Annexes are regulations setting out either a requirement that the state parties to each Annex ensure that its‟ ports provide adequate port reception facilities, where applicable, into which wastes can be discharged and/or a regulation covering Port State Control Inspections which are generally undertaken by inspectors of the MOU Regimes examined in Section 4.

As noted previously, ships are required to carry valid certificates and normally inspections will be used to verify their validity (alongside any other inspection criteria for a particular port or port state). However, more comprehensive inspections can be conducted under MARPOL 73/78 if there are clear grounds to believe that the ship does not meet the requirements of those certificates or there are grounds to believe that the ship or its equipment present a threat of harm to the marine environment if allowed to proceed to sea. Ships may then be detailed in port until appropriate repairs or remedial action has been taken, or allowed to travel on to a new port if facilities to undertake those repairs are not available in the port where the violation of the certificate has been identified. Ships can also be inspected and detained if there is evidence to suggest that there has been an illegal discharge at sea of harmful substances such as oil, noxious liquids, or in packaged form which includes freight containers.

The EU in particular has taken steps to support and strengthen the requirements of MARPOL 73/78 in European waters through the development of its own legislation on the provision of reception facilities in ports into which vessels can discharge wastes. The

European Union (2000) put in place a Directive on port reception facilities 37 which requires EU ports to provide facilities to allow ships which normally calling in at those ports to

discharge wastes into appropriate facilities, without causing them any undue delay. Where ships‟ masters refused to use these facilities, there would then be a case to closely monitor

such a vessel at its next port of call within the EU to check levels of waste on board and to investigate whether illegal discharges at sea have taken place. Such a refusal would also provide grounds for much closer inspection of certificates for MARPOL, SOLAS and LL for example, under the system of port state control inspections required by MARPOL 73/78 and other IMO Conventions. In part, this EU Directive was developed with the intention of strengthening the aim of MARPOL 73/78 that intentional pollution of the marine environment should be eliminated by providing facilities in ports, the availability of which removed any excuse that waste had to be discharged or dumped at sea as there were no adequate facilities available to dispose of them on-shore.

37 European Union (2000). Directive 2000/59/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 27 November 2000 on port reception facilities for ship-generated wastes and cargo residues. Official Journal L332 of 28 December 2000, pp 81-90. Pub: Official Journal of the European Communities. Full text available online at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32000L0059:EN:HTML

International Protection of the Marine Environment

Table 3. Summary of Annex History and Types of Substance covered by Annex

Annex 38 Substance I – Oil

Originally entered into force in October 1983 and set limits on the total quantity of oil that can be discharged by a tanker at sea, how fast that oil can be discharged and that no discharges could take place within 50 miles of the nearest land. This Annex was revised in 2003 to set a timetable for phasing out of single-hulled oil tankers (tankers which had the highest likelihood of causing oil spills if their hulls were breached in some way). It also set new limits on oil tankers carrying different amounts of heavy grade crude oils. A more recent revision of the Annex in October 2004 designated the Oman Sea area of the Arabian Seas as a special area where stricter controls are in place on the discharge of oily wastes. This new area joined the Mediterranean, Baltic, Black Sea and Red Sea areas, together with the Gulfs area, Gulf of Aden, Antarctic areas and North West European waters. The most recent amendments (July 2009) is aimed at clarifying requirements to facilitate compliance by ships‟ crews and also defines for the first time what is meant by oil residues and oily bilge water, for example.

II – Noxious Entered into force in April 1987 and set out discharge criteria and measures for a range of noxious liquid Liquid Substances substances. 250 different substances were evaluated at the time and the discharge of their residues is in Bulk

allowed only into reception facilities in certain concentrations and conditions. No discharges could take place within 12 miles of the nearest land, with more stringent restrictions covering the Baltic and Black Sea areas. The Annex was revised in October 2004 to re-categorize what constitutes noxious liquids. The new categories are: Category X – where discharges are deemed to present a major hazard to marine resources or human health and so are prohibited from being discharged: Category Y – where discharges are deemed to present a hazard to marine resources or human health, or cause hard to amenities or other uses of the sea, so limits on quality and quantity are set; Category Z – present a minor hazard … so less stringent restrictions; and Other Substances – present no harm … so not subject to the requirements of this Annex. Some limits are also set dependent on the age of the ship and the technology available on board.

III – Harmful Entered into force in July 1992 as an optional annex. Includes detailed standards on packing, marking, Substances

labelling, and documentation etc. of packaged goods. The criteria for harmful substances are: Carried by Sea in bioaccumulated to a significant extent and known to produce a hazard to aquatic life or human health; Packaged Form

bioaccumulated with attendant risk to aquatic organisms or human health for a period of one week or less; and highly toxic to aquatic life at a specified level of discharge against time.

IV – Sewage Entered into force in September 2003 as an optional Annex and set requirements to control the discharge of sewage – wastes from toilets etc., medical premises and waste from vessels transporting live animals - into the marine environment. The Annex was revised in April 2004 to set standards for new ships and to set limits on sewage discharges at sea. As a result, sewage can only be discharged at sea if: between 3 and 12 nautical miles from land it has been comminuted (shredded or pulverised to reduce the size of any solid matter) and disinfected; and outside 12 nautical miles it has been stored in holding tanks and is discharged at a rate specified by standards developed by the IMO and through specified discharge pipes. Of particular note is a geographical restriction of any discharges at all off the north-eastern coast of Australia which is aimed at protecting the Great Barrier Reef in that region. An amendment of March 2006 also introduced the regulation on PSC inspections.

V – Garbage Entered into force in December 1988. This Annex covers different types of garbage and how they should be disposed of and also sets strict limits in special areas – including the north-eastern coast of Australia, together with the Mediterranean, Baltic, Black, Red and North Seas, the Gulfs area, the Antarctic area and the Wider Caribbean Region. This Annex covers all vessels and includes a complete ban on dumping any type of plastic at sea. It also sets limits for disposal of food wastes, paper products, rags, glass, metal, bottles, packaging materials and other types of garbage at different distances from land.

VI – Air Pollution The most recent Annex of MARPOL 73/78 is Annex VI on Air Pollution. This was introduced in a

Protocol of 1997 and entered into force in May 2005, and was subsequently revised in October 2008. This Annex is particularly important in relation to issues of climate change/greenhouse gases and ozone depleting substances (for example CFCs). It sets out limits on sulphur content in ship‟s fuel to reduce sulphur oxides (SOx) emissions to air from ships of various types, limits on nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from the engines of various types of ships, and limits on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from tankers in ports and oil terminals. In addition, it sets even stricter sulphur content in fuel limits within Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECAs) covering the Baltic Sea and other sea or port areas designated by the IMO.

38 More information on the various types of waste is available from the IMO website, following links on the right hand side of the page. Available online at: http://www.imo.org/home.html

76 Angela Carpenter

3.3.4. International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers 1978 (STCW):

The STCW Convention originally entered into force in July 1978 with major amendments taking place in 1995 and 2010 39 . Amendments to STCW are made under the

tacit acceptance procedure, previously discussed at point 3.3.2. STCW 1978 set out minimum standards on training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers (ship‟ crew) such as deck officers, radio officers, engineers, and it was a requirement that all parties to the Convention (154 states representing 99.15 % of world tonnage at the end of June 2010) should meet or exceed those standards. It also set standards for training and qualifications for different ranks of crew on ships such as oil and chemical tankers, liquefied gas tankers, and cargo vessels carrying dangerous or hazardous cargoes. STCW 1978 does not cover manning levels on board ships as this is part of the requirements set down in the SOLAS Convention. A separate version of STCW specifically designed for fishing vessel personnel, was introduced by the IMO in 1995.

As with LL, SOLAS and MARPOL, the STCW Convention includes within it measures to ensure compliance with its requirements to provide appropriate education and training courses, certification procedures and other measures set out within it. Revisions to Chapter 1 of the Convention, which were adopted in July 1995 set out enhanced procedures to allow port states to intervene in situations where deficiencies identifies under inspections might result in danger to persons, property or the environment. These deficiencies include incorrect crew certification or where there is evidence that the ship has previously been operated in an unsafe manner.

A major amendment to STCW was adopted in May 2006 and entered into force in January 2008. In part, this amendment was intended to ensure that ships‟ crew come from a “→hite List” of countries, those countries which have fully implemented the requirements of

the Convention. In doing so, ships flying the flag of countries which are not on the list can be targeted for more rigorous inspection while those countries on the white list can choose not to employ, on their own flagged vessels, seafarers with certificates issued by non-white list countries.

Major revisions have been made to STCW following a Conference held in Manila in The Philippines in June 2010. These revisions, which are due to enter into force in January 2012, have introduced a number of measures including: improved measures to prevent fraud and better evaluate certificates of competency among seafarers; requirements relating to onboard technology, information systems and Dynamic Positioning Systems; and requirements on security training so that a ship‟s crew are able to deal with attacks by pirates.

Piracy on the High Seas is a problem that has grown over a number of years, particularly in regions such as the Indian Ocean including significant levels off the Horn of Africa, in the Malacca Straits and in the South China Sea, in the Red Sea and off the coastlines of some South American countries. In the case of the Horn of Africa and Gulf of Aden region, there have been large numbers of attacks on vessels sailing in the area over the last few years and over 130 attacks in 2008 and over 40 vessels being seized and held for ransom by Somali Pirates in that year. Recent examples of vessel hijackings include the US owned and flagged containership MV Maersk Alabama which was hijacked in April 2009 and the German owned

39 A summary of the STCW Convention is available from the IMO Website. Available online at: http://www.imo.org/Conventions/contents.asp?doc_id=651&topic_id=257

International Protection of the Marine Environment

but Antigua and Barbuda flagged cargo vessel Magellan Star which was hijacked in September 2010.

3.3.5. Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972 (COLREG):

The COLREG Convention was adopted in October 2972 and entered into force in July 1977. At June 2010 it had 153 Contracting Parties representing 98.36% of world tonnage. This Convention again uses the tacit acceptance procedure for adopting amendments, either via voting at the MSC or via special conferences on proposed amendments. The main aim of COLREG is to prevent collisions at sea, for example through the use of traffic separation schemes such as the scheme which operates in the Dover Strait, a narrow stretch of water between England and France which is one of the busiest sea-lanes in the world. At only 21 miles across at its narrowest point, this Strait is used by over 400 commercial vessels each day travelling through it in both directions, together with large numbers of ferries travelling between the two countries and a range of shipping and other vessels which operate in coastal waters.

COLREG is comprised of five sections (Parts A to E) and 38 Rules, together with four Annexes, the most last of which, Annex IV on Distress Signals, was revised through amendments of November 2007 and which sets out a range of signals which can be used to indicate that a vessel is in distress and needs assistance. COLREG rules in Parts A to E include: measures related to the visibility of vessels at sea including use of lights at different times and for different types of vessels; the use of look-outs to see (and hear) other vessels including measures dependent on the level of visibility at the time; measures to ensure that vessels should travel at a safe speed appropriate to where it is travelling; and what should happen when a vessel needs to overtake another one or avoid another vessel which is approaching it head on.

Rule 10, which sets out how vessels should behave in traffic separation schemes, is one of the Rules which the Paris MOU conducts its inspections. If a request is made by an MOU Authority that another Authority investigates a vessel for violations of Rule 10 of COLREG, then inspections which include examination of distress equipment on board can be conducted and the vessel can be detained until those deficiencies have been resolved.