Rear Admiral Peter Brady, director general of the Maritime Authority of Jamaica, has been re-elected chairman of the United Nations' specialised agency for international shipping, the International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) Subcommittee on Standards of Training and Watchkeeping. This subcommittee is the IMO body which makes international legislation for maritime training standards for nautical and engineer officers up to the level of masters and chief engineers.

This is the sixth consecutive time that Admiral Brady has been re-elected to this position, since his first election as chair in 2003; the election took place on February 5 at the IMO in London, England.

Admiral Brady thanked the committee for their continued support and confidence in his work as chairman. "I am proud to be representing my country Jamaica, and indeed the Caribbean at this level in the IMO," he said.

The deliberations of the committee are at a critical juncture as the second major revision of the International Convention for (STCW) 1995, as amended, is under way. The first major revision was in the early 1990s and the Diplomatic Conference accepting the amendments took place in 1995. This current revision takes into account technological developments in shipping in the past 10 years, maritime security training and specialised training for LNG and LPG ships.

International standard

The STCW Convention is accepted as the international standard for seafarer training and is considered as one of the four pillars of international maritime legislation, along with the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS), the Pollution Prevention Convention (MARPOL) and the recently adopted Maritime Labour Convention.

The Jamaican delegation to the conference also consisted of Captain Winston Chin, senior marine surveyor at the Maritime Authority of Jamaica, and Captain Johnny Pretell, director of the Marine Division and Professional Studies at the Caribbean Maritime Institute.