After Erika: Ship managers get pickier

摘要

The tanker Erika disaster has reopened the debate about substandard ships—and substandard enforcement of regulatory standards. Sadly, probably few professional ship managers found the Erika incident too much of a surprise. Skepticism expressed last year by outgoing ISMA President Harry Gilbert about continuing substandard shipping, dubious eleventh-hour ISM Code accreditation and the failure of the new ISM regime to bare its teeth, appears to be shared by many reputable European ship managers.