Just as we thought we were making progress against Covid-19 around the world, many countries have seen a resurgence and a third wave. This is having the effect of lockdowns and travel bans. The IMO, all the NGOs there and others from across the industry are now working around the clock to have the world’s seafarers designated as key workers so that they can become eligible for vaccinations through your own nation’s programmes. Currently this is the only route as WHO rules that only governments are permitted to buy vaccines from manufacturers.

Much work is underway to make an exemption for seafarers, particularly those from nations where national vaccine programmes are very limited. The
IMO, ICS and ITF are taking the lead on behalf of us all to request the WHO to make us a special case. This is not going to be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. I will keep you posted as and when any progress is made.

In the meantime, if you are part of a national programme, please get yourself vaccinated as this will make it much easier for crew changing. We are
in the meantime urging nations to allow you to fly out and back for crew changes using the current Crew Change Protocols.

I briefed you last month that routine work is starting to be re-established using virtual meetings. This is hard work and very time consuming, with very little time available for the meetings. Because of the large differences in time zones around the world, we only have availability for the meeting for three hours each day. Only essential work is being undertaken at the moment, but I am optimistic we will be able to get some important issues finalised at the next Maritime Safety Committee meeting in May, particularly in the area of maritime security where the continued incidence of piracy and kidnapping are on the increase in the Gulf of Guinea. So that we can be properly representation on the Working Group to discuss this issue our colleagues from the
Netherlands Association, NVKK, has kindly volunteered to represent us. As always I will keep you informed of progress.

I wish for you to sail in fair winds and following seas – keep safe.
Jim Scorer

Please click here to read complete Newsletter: IFSMA NL 39

2021 LIFE IN NEW REALITIES

2021 came with the new warnings about modified COVID 19 and possible new peaks of the pandemic. And so we have to learn to live with the new realities. In the last decades the maritime industry became more intensified and so the contracts of seamen shorten. Voyages of 6 and more months usual 20 years ago are rare now but the development of pandemic COVID 19 kept on board some seamen many more months than their contracts and was reason for a lot of mental and physical disturbances thus creating risk for the normal life on board ships and generating dangerous situations due to inadequate human reactions and human errors. Captains, of course, are more vulnerable to this as they have to cover the entire life on board and as usual is between the commercial pressure from the office and stressed seamen on board. From the other side the industry is developing very fast and mega containerships are getting bigger and bigger. In March the world faced the first accident from decades which closed Suez Canal for six days and created turmoil in world shipping with huge commercial losses for ship operators, trading and insurance companies. The investigation of that accident will find the causes for it but from ship captains point of view we see more and more commercial pressure to reduce expenses which leads to near misses and accidents. Transiting Suez Canal most probably will be more complicated in the future with new safety measures coming out of Ever Given grounding, more work and stress to ship captains

Last month we had some interesting news that the global merchant fleet of vessels above 100 grt has now reached over the 100,000-ship milestone for the first time, according to data from Clarksons Research. Across 100,001 ships in total, the average size of a vessel is
21,355 dwt, and the average age is 21.7 years. The estimated total value of the world fleet is $976bn across 2.1bn dwt and 1.4bn grt. Asian owners account for 46% of the deadweight, with European owners controlling 30% of the fleet.
Shipping crossed the 70,000 mark in February 2006, 15 years ago almost to the day. The average vessel size has increased by 57% since then. It is therefore of no surprise that the shipping industry is worth over US$14trillion to the world economy and it is for this reason all of the UN Agencies key NGOs are pressurising nations to treat all mariners as key workers and to ensure that mariners are vaccinated against COVID-19 to ensure this global market keeps running smoothly.

Well here we are at the beginning of 2021 and we are all still badly affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), on behalf of the whole maritime industry, are leading the calls
for governments to put seafarers and frontline maritime shore workers at the head of the vaccine queue and to designate seafarers as keyworkers, to avoid a repeat of the 2020 ‘crew change crisis’. ICS and ITF are demanding that governments, who are once again restricting travel as a reaction to new COVID-19 mutations, recognise the vital role seafarers play in the global supply chain.