Control over Argentine Ports - Checklist

  PNA as a PSC Authority: Control over fishing vessels

Introductión

PSC activities are conducted by highly qualified and specialized inspection teams.

The Latin American Agreement on Port State Control, adopted in Viña del Mar in 1992, is of great significance for a closer co-operation between the Maritime Authorities of the region in coordinating steps aimed at the inspection of foreign ships visiting their ports, in line with the requirements of current International Maritime Conventions on maritime safety, training and certification of crew members, and the prevention of marine and river pollution from ships.

The decision was taken as a result of the growing concern of the international maritime community for serious incidents which occurred in recent years due to the poor maintenance of ships, the lack of qualification of personnel on board, multinational and reduced crew members, and the obvious difficulties of flag States to exercise full and continuous control over some ships which are entitled to fly their flags.

The commitment undertaken by the Maritime Authorities on July 1, 1995 resulted from a request made by the International Maritime Organization Assembly by Resolution A. 682(17) inviting governments to establish regional agreements on the worldwide application of supervision measures by Port States.

The spirit and the main objective of the Agreement is the commitment of the Maritime Authorities in the region to maintain an effective and harmonized system of Port State control with a view to ensuring that, without discrimination as to flag, foreign ships visiting the ports of its State comply with the standards laid down in the international conventions which are defined as "relevant instruments" of the Agreement , namely:

• International Convention on Load Lines, 1966.
  

• International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, as amended (SOLAS 74).

• Protocol of 1978 relating to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974.

• International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 relating thereto (MARPOL 73/78)

• International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978 (STCW 1978), as amended.

• Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972; and
  International Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships, 1969.

For these purposes, each Maritime Authority undertakes to conduct a minimum of 15% of inspections of the total different foreign ships entering their ports in a period of 12 months. Furthermore, and in order to avoid hindering the operation of vessels, each Authority will seek to avoid inspecting ships which have been inspected by any of the other Maritime Authorities during the previous six months, unless recent deficiencies have been detected or ships represent a special risk to navigation.

The Latin American Agreement was adopted in 1992 by the Latin American Maritime Authorities

The information on the inspections conducted at any of the Member State ports on a daily basis are submitted to the Information Center of the Latin American Agreement (CIALA), located at the "Coast Guard Building" - the Argentine Coast Guard (PNA) headquarters - where data is input to the database together with all the information on the ship involved. In turn, this database is used by the Maritime Authorities of the region for permanent consultation and information purposes to coordinate and plan their supervisory activities.

The most common reason for loss of bulk carriers in recent years is due to structure deficiencies

The information files contained in the Information Center of the Latin American Agreement (CIALA) Database provide Maritime Authorities with data of great interest. Maritime Authorities can have real time access to all the information on ships inspected in national ports, or control their own management as Port State Control Authorities.

During the first six-month period of 2000, a total of 1,484 inspections were conducted of which 592 were found to have deficiencies, thus maintaining the 40% percentage of last year. This leads to the conclusion that the number of inspections made has been sustained, although there was a substantial decrease in the percentage of deficiencies found, and a reduction of the percentage of ships detained, which, during the first semester of the current year, was 1,88% as compared with 2.40% in the same previous period.

The higher percentage of deficiencies was found in dry bulk carriers (65.45%), oils tankers (14.6%) and bulk carriers (9%). Considering their relationship with the age of the ship, this percentage is maintained. The older the ships, the higher the number of detentions. For Ships 20/24 years of age the percentage of detentions is 47.27%, more than 25 years old, 34.54% and 15/19 7.3%.

Ship control procedures are conducted in the ports corresponding to the jurisdictions of the River Plate, Argentine Northern Sea and Lower Parana Districts. The River Plate and Lower Parana ports receive most of the total sea-going sailing traffic; consequently, these areas are strategically important due to the significance of these waterways for commercial sailing of large vessels and, in general, for the economy of the country.

As a result, the PNA, apart from exercising control over ships for navigation purposes, must implement supervisory procedures in the Common Waiting Area at La Plata Road, from where most ships start sailing upstream heading for port terminals located at both coastal lines of the Lower Parana River and, to a lesser extent, for the ports of Buenos Aires, Dock Sud and La Plata.

Control is focused on compliance with rules and standards relating to maritime safety, training and certification, and pollution prevention.

During the inspection procedures conducted this year on foreign flag vessels entering Argentine ports, and within the framework of the Latin American Agreement on Port State Control, PSCOs found a high percentage of deficiencies. Consequently, besides other actions taken, masters were instructed to rectify these deficiencies before departure.

Furthermore, other findings may arise from the ship's non-compliance with the relevant documentation (Statutory Certificates) or the improper operation of certain systems and essential equipment of the vessel, which may be clearly hazardous to safety or the environment. These constitute clear grounds for the ship's detention to ensure that the hazard will be removed before the ship is allowed to proceed to sea or that the vessel will undergo repairs in a yard to safeguard the vessel and the people on board. The Maritime Authority will notify the competent authorities of the Flag State and the recognized organization (classification society), acting on behalf of the flag and of local port authorities, of the action taken.

This year, as a result of more detailed inspections, PNA detained the following foreign flag vessels:

SHIP NAME	FLAG	SHIP TYPE	DATE OF DETENTION	PORT OF DETENTION	CONVENTION INFRINGED	DATE OF RELEASE	CLASS SOCIETY
THELITA	NORWAY	GENERAL CARGO	April 18, 2000	BUENOS AIRES	SOLAS and MARPOL.	April 19, 2000	BUREAU VERITAS
FULVIA	PANAMA	BULK CARRIER	May 15, 2000	LA PLATA ROAD	SOLAS, MARPOL, STCW and LL.	June 02, 2000	BUREAU VERITAS
TURNSTONE	MALTA	BULK CARRIER	May 31, 2000	SAN LORENZO ROAD	SOLAS and MARPOL	June 07, 2000	POLSKI REJESTER STATKOW
CRILAND II	BELIZE	FISHING VESSEL	June 03, 2000	DESEADO PORT	SOLAS and MARPOL	June 13, 2000	PANAMA MARITIME DOC. SERVICE INC.
STALKER	BELIZE	FISHING VESSEL	July 11, 2000	COMODORO RIVADAVIA	SOLAS and MARPOL	August 13, 2000	N/A

The examination of fire-fighting devices includes checking the ship plans and their conformity with safety standards, as provided for in the relevant conventions, according to the ship's construction date.

Furthermore, the "ELINKA" and "OCEAN IRIS" vessels (both Panamanian flag vessels) are still detained at the Comodoro Rivadavia and Dock Sud ports, respectively, because the owners/operators have not yet taken any actions to rectify the serious deficiencies hazardous to safety.

PNA as a PSC Authority: Control over fishing vessels.

Prefectura Naval Argentina (Argentine Coast Guard), as the Argentine Maritime Authority responsible for safeguarding the safety of lives and goods at sea and the marine environment, acts as the Flag State of fishing vessels authorized to fly the Argentine flag, and performs Port State control functions on foreign vessels, including fishing vessels authorized to operate in its waterways and ports, or on any other vessel, which by reason of any act of god (damages, etc), must enter its ports.
The Port Sate Control functions, performed within the framework of the Viña del Mar Agreement, have been increased not only for safeguarding the maritime safety and the marine environment, but also for discouraging illicit, unregulated and unreported fishing, as well as avoiding maritime frauds and detecting the potential operation of "phantom ships"(poachers).
In this respect, PNA is playing an active role in the region by discouraging the operation of substandard ships as well as illegal fishing (unregulated and unreported) through the establishment of a ship control system - part of a comprehensive regime for a rational use of marine living resources in the Argentine Economic Zone (ZEEA)- which allows fishing vessels from other States to access the excess of the total allowable catch (TAC), as provided for by UNCLOS in its article 62, para. 2.

The Port State Control over fishing vessels helps avoiding illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities, as well as detecting "ghost" ships.

Under the universally accepted principle that vessels authorized to fly the flag of a State which is not a Party to an instrument or regional or subregional agreement will not receive "a more favorable treatment" and thanks to the advances made in this respect at the VI Meeting of the Latin American Agreement Committee on Port Sate Control, Viña del Mar, 1992, at the beginning of this year PNA started a concentrated inspection campaign (CIC) on foreign fishing vessels authorized to fish within the ZEEA, following the guidelines of a checklist of essential elements and equipment to conduct an efficient inspection on maritime safety, prevention of pollution at sea, safe manning minimum standards, marking and identification of fishing ships, location of fishing vessels at sea and communication of data relating to their catch.

Based on a sample of more than a hundred ships inspected, the results obtained show deficiencies in maritime safety and, to a lesser extent, in the prevention of pollution from ships. From our analysis of the deficiencies found, we detected the lack of safe manning documentation issued by the Flag State specifying the number and composition of the crew, as well as the lack of records of annual surveys which validate the different safety certificates issued by a recognized Administration or Organization, thus generating doubts about their validity.