THE ROLE OF THE COAST GUARD IN RAISING THE STANDARD OF SAFETY AT SEA IN A GLOBALISED ENVIRONMENT
World Maritime Day 2001
Trinidad Guardian
September 27, 2001
Page 12
INTRODUCTION
In the global environment, each state remains free in theory to apply its own legal standards relating to such matters as seaworthiness and crew qualifications to ships flying it's flag. However in an integrated scheme of safety management there would be chaos if these standards varied widely or were incompatible. Furthermore because safety measures usually involve extra costs for ship owners and because shipping is a very competitive industry most states are reluctant to impose stricter safety legislations on their ship owners than other states impose on theirs.
The globalised environment has allowed the work of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to come to the fore in this context. The IMO has developed a set of uniform international standards to promote the safety of shipping. These standards are contained in a number of international conventions, most of which are the work of the IMO. Under five main headings, the shipping safety standards dealt with by these conventions will now be considered.
APPLICABLE STANDARDS
(a) Seaworthiness of Ships
The main convention dealing with the seaworthiness of ships is the 1974 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS convention).
(b) Collision Avoidance
The International convention for the prevention of Collisions at sea is concerned with a vessel's conduct and movements in relation to other vessels, particularly when visibility is poor, for the purposes of collision avoidance and with the establishment of common standards in relation to sound and light signals.
(c) Crewing Standards
The STCW convention lays down mandatory minimum requirements for the certification of masters and others officers and prescribes basic principles for keeping navigational and engineering watches. Enforcement of the STCW convention's provisions rests essentially with the flag states. Although port states have certain powers of control for the purpose of verifying that seafarers required to be certified by the convention.
The developing these of this article and the role of the Coast Guard in raising the standards of safety with regard to using these conventions is that these international standards must be given effect to be applicable locally. At present the STCW legislation in actively being developed for implementation within Trinidad and Tobago.
(d) Pollution at Sea
The International convention for the Prevention of Pollution from ships 1973, as modified by the protocol, is known as MARPOL 73/78. Regulations relating to different types of ship-generated pollution are contained in five annexes. These documents have the objective of assisting with the legal and technical methods of enforcing MARPOL 73/78 once it has been incorporated into national law.
(e) Small boat traffic and radio reporting
The majority of international conventions that have been discussed in the context of globalisation are relevant to vessels of particular gross tonnages. Exempt from their standards are the large numbers of fishing craft, pleasure vessels, yachts and pirogues that belong to owners or visitors in Trinidad and Tobago. Legislatively the Coast Guard is empowered under the laws of Trinidad and Tobago by section 6 of the Defence Act 14:01. This provides for an Officer, Petty Officer or man in command of any unit of the Coast Guard, in any case where he has reasonable cause to suspect that any vessel is engaged in any unlawful operation whatever within the territorial waters of Trinidad and Tobago, may stop and board and search, with any assistance, any and every part of such vessel and if he thinks necessary may direct such vessel to proceed to such place as he may specify.
This provides for action if a reasonable cause exists to suspect any vessel is engaged in an unlawful operation.
Disregard to safety standards and practices is not an unlawful operation.
If it should be so, it has not been defined by legislative provisions that detail the equipment to be carried on board, the level of competency of he person in charge of the vessel, the radio reporting requirements for a vessel departing from a berthing facility, the level of alcohol permissible to be consumed by the captain of the vessel, the maximum amount of passengers of a vessel as determined by its specifications, the life jackets and floatation devices that are required to be carried, safe speeds of vessels, certificates of seaworthiness for vessels and ... The list can go on, however, the Coast Guard provides continuous monitoring of these infractions and advises the boating public of the dangers of doing these things. The list however does not exist.
THE ROLE OF THE TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO COAST GUARD
What the Coast Guard has defined as its role in this context is as follows,
1. The SOLAS convention requires communications for Search and Rescue to be raised to the standard of a Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS). In Trinidad and Tobago the implications of this part of SOLAS have been considered by the Government in setting up a committee to steer the implementation of the required systems. The Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard is part of this committee.
2. The SAR convention assigning maritime areas of responsibility was acceded to by Trinidad and Tobago in May 1989. This defines an area of responsibility of 68,500 sq. nautical miles including Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The required Maritime Rescue Coordinating Centre is located at the headquarters of the Coast Guard at Staubles Bay. The operational assets that the Coast Guard has in its fleet and air inventory include twelve (12) vessels and six (6) aircraft. These are multi-mission capable and are available for tasking under the Search and Rescue responsibility as defined in the convention anywhere within the defined area of responsibility. The Coast Guard accordingly maintains a continuous radio watch on the International Distress and Calling frequencies.
3. In the area of training the Caribbean Fisheries Training and Development Institute, which is located at Chaguaramas, receives Coast Guard seamanship instructors to support the fulfillment of the international standards of maritime training.
4. The surveillance and monitoring of shipping by air and sea is carried out by the Coat Guard on a routine basis as part of the forward operational tasking of its units.
This has implications for the maritime shipping that is associated with the offshore energy and petro-chemical industry in Point Fortin and Galeota.
5. As required the Coast Guard executes the National Oil spill Contingency Plans in conjunction with other designated bodies. This is augmented by the participation of the unit on Cabinet appointed committees for implementation of Marine Pollution related conventions.
CONCLUSION
This article has tried to examine the effect of globalisation on the safety standards that are recognised. It has listed those that are applicable locally because of the enactment of an Act of Parliament. This is a gap however in the global scheme of things which allows small vessels as compared to tankers, passenger ferries and roll-on roll-off vessels, to escape in Trinidad and Tobago any globalised scheme of standards for safety.
While prevention is better than cure, a cure exists. The response of the Coast Guard to cover this state of affairs is to develop its capability to conduct effective duties that assist in the implementation of safety standards.
Prepared by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard http://www.ttdf.mil.tt