IMO Chief's “grounds for concern”

Opening IMO's Maritime Safety Committee meeting this week the body's secretary general Efthimios Mitropoulos has expressed concern at the number of seafarers killed at sea this year, mainly in domestic ferries and small vessel, and at the prospect of the economic crisis leading to dangerous practices.
He said that there are grounds for genuine concern over a number of issues, one of them being the overall safety record of certain sectors of the shipping industry. He continued: “While the recent delivery of many new ships built to the highest IMO standards has injected a welcome element of youth into the age profile of the world merchant fleet and, as a consequence, a higher degree of safety, we cannot ignore the fact that, since the beginning of the year, well over 1,600 seafarers are estimated to have lost their lives in accidents mainly involving ferries in domestic service and small cargo ships caught up in adverse weather conditions.”
Mr Mitropoulos said: “I find these figures both disturbing and unacceptable – a real setback at a time when so many efforts are being made to enhance safety at sea and so many endeavours are coming to fruition, including the International Safety Management Code, the first phase of which entered into force 10 years ago.”
“Also of concern,” he said, “is the current financial crisis, which analysts predict will continue for some time to come and which is already negatively impacting on economies worldwide, triggering fears of a global recession. A prolonged crisis of the sort we have been experiencing since the summer will leave no sector unscathed and, along with the world trade, it has already affected the shipping industry. The situation may be exacerbated by the release of new tonnage into the market place from the recent years’ unprecedented world order book, which, in spite of the anticipated withdrawal of further single-hull tankers in 2010, may lead to a substantive imbalance between supply and demand of shipping capacity worldwide forcing ships to lay up.”
He cautioned: “In this difficult time ahead, when it will be prudent to seek economies to face the storm, it would also be necessary to guard against measures that may have a negative impact on the safety of ships and shipping operations. While recommending that we should all exercise patience and perseverance in weathering the crisis, I would advise against adhering to savings and practices that might play a contributory part in any decline in the safety record of shipping and in the efforts of the maritime community to protect and preserve the marine environment.”