Port State Control at work
It is known that the responsibility for ensuring that ships
comply with the provisions of the relevant instruments rests upon the owners, masters and
the flag States. Some flag States fail to fulfil their commitments contained in agreed
international legal instruments and subsequently some ships are sailing in an unsafe
condition, threatening the lives as well as the marine environment. Port State control is
a system of harmonized inspection procedures designed to target sub-standards ships with
the main objective being their eventual elimination. |
Co-operation between flag State
and Port State
Having recognized that the main responsibility lies with the
flag State on the one hand and the inability for a variety of reasons of some of flag
States to meet, entirely, their obligations under the conventions resulting in the
existence of substandard ships it is imperative to develop close co-operation between flag
States and port States.
It is a fact that the most important largest Registries have become so due to the
attraction of ships whose beneficial ownership belongs to traditional maritime countries
which again, for a variety of reasons have chosen a particular port of regulation as
oppose to others. It is in the best interest of all to develop an effective flag
State/port State interfaces for the sake of safe shipping. |
