AMENDMENTS to the International Maritime Organisation's International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) and the 1988 Load Lines Protocol entered into force on January 1, 2014.
SOLAS amendments include an amendment to SOLAS regulation III/20.11.2 regarding the testing of free-fall lifeboats. This requires that the operational testing of free-fall lifeboat release systems shall be performed either by free-fall launch with only the operating crew on board, or by a simulated launching.
An amendment to SOLAS chapter V added a new regulation V/14 on ships' manning, to require administrations for every ship, to establish appropriate minimum safe manning levels following a transparent procedure, taking into account the guidance adopted by the IMO (Assembly resolution A.1047(27) on principles of minimum safe manning).
An appropriate minimum safe manning document, or equivalent, is also to be issued, as evidence of the minimum safe manning considered necessary.
The Solas amendments also prohibit blending of bulk liquid cargoes during the sea voyage and production processes on board ships.
SOLAS regulation XI-1/2 on enhanced surveys was amended, to make mandatory the International Code on the Enhanced Programme of Inspections during surveys of bulkers and tankers, 2011 (2011 ESP Code, resolution A.1049(27)), reports Tanker Operator.
In addition, the IMO warned that the US Caribbean Sea Emission Control Area (ECA) came into effect, under MARPOL Annex VI, on January 1, 2014, bringing in stricter controls on emissions of sulphur oxide (SOx), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter.
This change effects ships trading in certain waters adjacent to the coasts of Puerto Rico and the United States' Virgin Islands.
There are now four designated ECAs in effect globally: the US Caribbean Sea ECA and the North American ECA, plus the SOx ECAs in the Baltic Sea area and the North Sea area.
Finally, the winter seasonal zone was moved south under the LL protocol. Amendments to regulation 47 of the 1988 Protocol to the International Convention on Load Lines (LL), 1966 has shifted the Winter Seasonal Zone off the southern tip of Africa 50 miles further south.
