The International Maritime Organization has signed updated data-sharing agreements with the Black Sea and Caribbean port state control regimes to widen access to ship inspection records, according to IMO.
The agreements were signed at IMO headquarters in London on 21 July by IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez, Black Sea MoU Secretariat secretary Onur Turhan and Caribbean MoU secretary-general Jodi Munn-Barrow. IMO published details of the agreements on 4 August.
The arrangements will expand the transfer of validated port state control inspection data and support further development of the PSC module in the IMO Global Integrated Shipping Information System, known as GISIS. They also form part of the IMO-led PSC Overarching Database project, which is intended to enable near-real-time information sharing between regional inspection regimes.
The planned system is expected to improve data consistency and integrity, strengthen risk-based inspection planning and reduce duplicate reporting by IMO member states.
The latest agreements bring the number of regional PSC regimes covered by updated IMO data-sharing arrangements to eight. Earlier agreements were concluded with the Abuja, Indian Ocean, Tokyo, Mediterranean, Paris and Riyadh memoranda.
Discussions are continuing with the Viña del Mar Agreement and the US Coast Guard.
IMO is the United Nations specialised agency responsible for shipping safety and security and for preventing marine and atmospheric pollution from ships. It has 176 member states and 50 conventions and protocols.
The Black Sea MoU and Caribbean MoU are regional port state control arrangements under which participating maritime authorities coordinate inspections of foreign-flagged ships. The Caribbean MoU Secretariat is based in Kingston, Jamaica.