Michael Bernard (second left), president of the Shipping Association of Jamaica, hosting members of the Executive Council of the Caribbean Shipping Association (CSA) at a function at the historic Fort Charles in Port Royal last week. Also pictured (from left) are Carlos Urriola, CSA Group B chairman; Corah-Ann Robertson-Sylvester, CSA president; Sonja Voisin-Tom, CSA Group A representative; and Fernando Rivera, CSA vice-president.
THE MARITIME Authority of Jamaica (MAJ) continues to pursue its mandate for the identification of sub-standard ships in Jamaica's waters through vigorous pursuit of its port state control (PSC) mandate.
Six years on since the inception of the MAJ, there has been a drive to ensure that visiting foreign ships meet the international safety and pollution standards and are manned and operated in compliance with the requirements of the international conventions. This is one of the MAJ's core responsibilities and serves to eliminate sub-standard shipping in and around Jamaican waters in order to preserve Jamaica's pristine marine environment, which is important to our tourism product.
In the last quarter of 2005, 21 vessels were inspected at the Port of Kingston with three being detained for navigational deficiencies.
To boost its PSC capabilities, Sharon Reyes, chief officer and marine inspector at the MAJ, represented Jamaica at a seminar in December 2005 in Suriname. Participants from 14 other Caribbean states received training in the use of the Caribbean Maritime Information Centre (CMIC) database.
The CMIC was established by the Caribbean Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (CMOU), that has its secretariat housed at the MAJ, to aid port state control officers and other stakeholders who are working together to identify, track and eliminate sub-standard vessels, owners and operators in the Caribbean.
DATABASE
"The database will help us to be more efficient in deploying our port state control duties," noted Ms. Reyes. "Under the CMOU, a vessel should not be re-inspected within six months of an inspection, if there were no deficiencies.
"As such, we can now use the database to ascertain the port state control status of vessels calling at our ports before arrival and a decision taken whether these vessels should be inspected." Ms. Reyes explained.
She also gave a presentation at the seminar on 'The Stages of Port State Control Inspection'.
