The Polar Code and how it will improve Ship Survivability in Antarctic and Southern Ocean Operations

摘要

The Antarctic and Southern Oceans present a challenging environment which places additional demands on ships, their systems and the persons who operate them. They are remote waters and the normal provision of search and rescue services to ships in difficulty are stretched in these locations. Yet they are becoming increasingly visited by commercial shipping in particular for fishing and tourism. Over the past fifteen years there have been at least thirty maritime incidents in Antarctic waters involving ships grounding, sinking, being entrapped in ice and suffering on-board fires. This is a massive increase from the six recorded incidents in the previous two hundred years. On 21 November 2014 the IMO Maritime Safety Committee adopted the ship safety provisions of the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code). The Marine Environmental Protection Committee adopted the provisions relating to environmental protection at its May 2015 meeting. The Code will come into force for new-buildings on 1 January 2017 and existing ships will be required to meet the relevant requirements of the Polar Code by the first intermediate or renewal survey, whichever occurs first, after 1 January 2018. The Code covers certain ships that operate in that area of ocean south of 60 degrees South here called the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.