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Exclusive Interview-Koji Sekimizu
www.seanews.com.tr
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and Harbours (IAPH), the International
Maritime Pilots Association (IMPA) and the
Chairman of the IMO Sub-Committee on
Safety of Navigation. The objective for this
Panel is to establish an IMO/IALA award
which will be presented to the best perform-
ing VTS on a regional basis. Of course,
while the concept is “Accident Zero”, we
intend to recognize that high-density traffic
areas and complex navigational fairways are
at higher risk of accidents or near-misses.
Therefore, the award would look towards
highlighting those VTS which have done
much to mitigate accidents within a VTS
area. Indeed, the reporting of near-miss
occurrences should be encouraged, in order
to promote a safety culture.
Eight regional areas have been estab-
lished and the first award is expected to be
made in 2014.
SeaNews: What initiatives will be
there for IMO to take after the Costa
Concordia accident? Large passenger
ship safety is continuous agenda item
for IMO. What additional work will be
undergone by IMO on this matter?
Koji Sekimizu:
The Maritime Safety
Committee (MSC, meeting from 12 to
21 June 2013) is currently discussing the
recommendations arising from the Costa
Concordia casualty report.
A working group will be established to
consider the report’s recommendations in
detail and this group will report back to
the Committee at the end of the session. I
anticipate the MSC will agree an updated
short-, medium- and long-term action plan,
taking into consideration the recommenda-
tions, which address a wide range of mat-
ters, including: stability issues, electronic
equipment, emergency power generation,
evacuation analysis, and search and rescue,
in addition to operational and management
issues.
Already, the MSC last year agreed a num-
ber of recommended voluntary measures
that could be put in place with immediate
effect. These included carrying additional
lifejackets, to be readily accessible in public
spaces, so that, in the event of an emer-
gency, passengers need not return to their
cabins to retrieve the lifejacket stored there;
reviewing the emergency instructions on
board ships; carrying out the muster for
embarking passengers prior to departure
from every port of embarkation; limiting
access to the bridge and ensuring that the
ship’s voyage plan has taken into account
IMO’s Guidelines for voyage planning, and,
if appropriate, Guidelines on voyage plan-
ning for passenger ships operating in remote
areas.
The MSC is expected at this session to
adopt draft amendments to chapter III of
the International Convention for the Safety
of Life at Sea (SOLAS), to require musters
of newly embarked passengers prior to
or immediately upon departure, instead of
“within 24 hours”, as stated in the current
regulations.
It is, of course, important that IMO
continues to take the lead, together with
the industry, on enhancing passenger ship
safety standards, particularly operational
standards. In this context, I recognize and
appreciate the coordinated efforts of the
cruise industry to improve operational safe-
ty and actions already taken.
SeaNews: What are the current IMO
initiatives with regard to proactive ap-
proach policy on marine accidents?
Koji Sekimizu:
Earlier this year I
announced that I would like to set a target
of halving the number of lives lost at sea.
This is an ambitious target but I think that
by taking a number of proactive approaches
we can work towards this.
The holding of the IMO Symposium on
the Future of Ship Safety, on 10 and 11 June
2013, provided an opportunity to look at cur-
rent trends and the Symposium Statement
that was adopted, points to a number of
key ways in which we can achieve greater
safety. In particular, the Symposium partici-
pants invited the MSC to:
•
consider how to improve data col-
lection and increase its availability
in order to support monitoring and
development of safety regulations;
•
consider how to better integrate risk-
based methodologies and the latest
analysis techniques into the regula-
tory framework on safety, to provide
a sound scientific and practicable
basis for the development of future
safety regulations;
•
consider ways of encouraging a safe-
ty culture beyond mere compliance
with regulatory requirements;
•
take into account the burden any new
or changing regulation(s) place on
seafarers and how this burden can be
minimized; and
•
consider undertaking a long-term
comprehensive review of the exist-
ing regulatory framework on safety,
with a view to ensuring that it will
meet the future challenges associated
with the application of new technolo-
gies, the human element, the needs
of the maritime industry and the
expectations of society, taking into
account the ever-increasing pace of
change and technological advance-
ments made since the 1974 SOLAS
and the International Load Lines
Conventions were adopted.
SeaNews: SeaNews Turkey is a monthly
magazine aiming to meet the Turkish
maritime with the world and the World
maritime with Turkish maritime. Thank
you very much for taking your time for
us and wish you every success at IMO.
Thank you.
Koji Sekimizu:
Thank you. I wish you
every success too, with your new publica-
tion.
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