This was a full length eight-day meeting of the Committee and the first for a year as last year was Assembly year. It was also the first meeting to be attended by the new Secretary-General Mr. A. Dominguez. It was very well attended, attracting 97 submissions, and chaired again by Mrs Mayte Medina of the USA. At the last meeting the Chair had expressed concern about the workload of the Committee and instructed that there should be a moratorium on submissions of proposals for new work at this meeting. The Chair had prepared some proposals for managing the workload including the setting up of a standing body to undertake preliminary assessment of proposals for new work. No conclusions were reached on this, but it was clear that the moratorium on submissions should be extended to the next meeting.

Concerns were raised again about the ongoing conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine and its effects on international shipping and seafarers. Since the last meeting the Assembly had adopted a resolution on the impact of the Russian armed invasion of Ukraine which demanded the Russian Federation to cease hostilities, cease harassing commercial ships and restricting international navigation, and cease attacks on port infrastructure. The delegation of Ukraine reported that these requests were being ignored. There was considerable support for Ukraine but criticism by the delegation of the Russian Federation of the Assembly resolution and groundless accusations made by some delegations. The Russian Federation proposed actions on the Committee for debate. It was however considered that these raised serious issues with potential consequences for the entire Organization and a vote was requested which resulted in a majority decision to not continue with the debate.

A new issue since the last meeting concerned the security situation in the Red Sea region where ships had been attacked and sunk, seafarers killed and taken hostage. The delegation of Egypt reported a 42% drop in traffic in the Suez canal as ships sailed longer routes to the detriment of the environment. There was strong condemnation of Houthi attacks on commercial ships. There was criticism of the Islamic Republic of Iran in supporting the Houthi although this was tempered when news was received of the death of the Iranian president in an accident. After considerable debate a resolution was adopted on the Security situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden resulting from Houthi attacks on commercial ships and seafarers which demands the Houthis to immediately cease attacking commercial ships.

Work continued in a working group on Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) towards developing a voluntary MASS Code for cargo ships. This was progressing well but it was concluded that it will not be possible to complete the work as planned by the next meeting. The deadline will therefore be extended to 2025 which means that it will not be possible to achieve the 2026 adoption deadline for a mandatory code and the earliest possible entry into force will now be 2032. A correspondence group and an intersessional working group will be held before the next meeting. The Committee noted that Mr Jaideep Sirkar of the USA who chaired the Goal Based Standards working group had recently died.

Work continued on the development of a safety regulatory framework to support the reduction of GHG emissions from ships using new technologies and alternative fuels . The report of the correspondence group set up by the last meeting was considered in a working group. Work will continue in the re-established correspondence group and an intersessional working group.

The previous meeting had agreed new work for a revision of the guidelines on cyber risk management (MSC.FAL.1/Circ3) and a new draft was prepared to be forwarded to the Facilitation Committee.

The previous meeting had dealt with urgent issues only from the meeting of the sub-committee on Navigation, Communications, Search and Rescue (NCSR) which had taken place from the 10 to 19 May 2023. Of the remaining issues, the proposed revised performance standards for the electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) were adopted to add a requirement for standardised digital exchange of ship’s route plans and NCSR was instructed to develop operational guidance for route exchange. New ECDIS will be capable of supporting the new International Hydrographic Office (IHO) S-100 products and NCSR was further instructed to consider implementation matters of S-100 and training needs of seafarers.
The issue of increased costs for Maritime Safety Information (MSI) providers as new GMDSS satellite service providers are recognised in addition to Inmarsat had been referred to the Committee for advice. After some debate the meeting instructed NCSR to prepare draft amendments to the SOLAS Convention clearly stating the requirement for dissemination of MSI and search and rescue information through all recognised satellite service providers (RMSS), and set a target date of 31 December 2026 for full dissemination by existing RMSS.

The report of the sub-committee on Human element, training and watchkeeping (HTW) was considered and an action plan agreed for a comprehensive review of the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) Convention and Code. An intersessional group meeting will be held to progress the work.

The meeting bade farewell to Katy Ware of the United Kingdom who was retiring.

The next meeting has been scheduled for 2 to 6 Dember 2024. A meeting of the intersessional working Group on MASS has been scheduled for 9 to 13 September 2024. The next meeting of NCSR has been scheduled for 4 to 13 June 2024.

IMO NCSR10: 10 – 19 May 2023

The meeting of the sub-committee on Navigation, Communications, Search and Rescue (NCSR) was held under the chairmanship Nigel Clifford of New Zealand. This was the first in person meeting since Covid so there was more time available to catch up on items which had been deferred. The agenda still proved to be quite challenging however and some items could not be completed for lack of time. Some hybrid working possible was possible for members who were unable to attend in person.

A document had been received from Ukraine expressing concerns on the Russian Federation's actions impacting the functioning of Ukraine's system of navigational and hydrographic support of shipping in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. This led to considerable debate although some of the issues raised were outside of the scope of the sub-committee. In conclusion Member States were encouraged to ensure that the functioning of key navigational aids and systems was protected at all times and particularly during any conflict situation in order to guarantee the safety of international shipping and protect the lives of seafarers.

Following the work of the last meeting in preparing revised performance standards for the electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS), amendments were agreed to add a requirement for standardised digital exchange of ship’s route plans. No input had been received on proposals to amend the performance standards for the Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) so this item was deleted from the work programme.

There was considerable discussion on proposals to amend SOLAS to improve the safety of pilot transfer arrangements. The way forward was concluded to be the development of a new resolution containing performance standards and this task was referred to a correspondence group led by China.

Maritime Safety Information (MSI) Providers

The issue of increased costs for Maritime Safety Information (MSI) providers as new GMDSS satellite service providers are recognised in addition to Inmarsat had been referred by the last meeting to a correspondence group led by Australia. The group had defined a number of options but none of the options could offer a perfect outcome. The issue will now be referred to the Maritime Safety Committee for further advice. Revisions were prepared to the Iridium SafetyCast service manual, the Joint IMO/IHO/WMO Manual on Maritime Safety Information and MSC.1/Circ.1610 concerning the description of maritime services in the context of e-navigation. Proposals to revise the criteria for the provision of new GMDSS satellite service providers (resolution A.1001(25)) received from a correspondence group set up by the last meeting were referred back to the group led by France.

Various liaison statements to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) were prepared concerning the IMO position for the next ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC 23); proposals to modify the recommendation M.1371-5 for the Automatic Identification System (AIS), issues on coding of emergency indicating radio beacons (EPIRBs), and digital selective calling alarms relating to bridge alert management.

The meeting noted information provided by radio manufacturers that it would not be realistic to produce new GMDSS radios in time for deadline of installations after 1 January 2024. Proposals were prepared for the Committee to consider a revised date of 1 January 2028. COMSAR/Circ.32 relating to the availability of radio equipment was revised following experience of its use.

The issue of unlawful practices associated with the manipulation of data transmissions from the automatic identification system (AIS) and tampering of AIS transponders was discussed with a view to possibly identifying improved technical arrangements.

Some items had been received but were not considered to be sufficiently mature to be actioned. Proposals for performance standards for NAVDAT, intended to be a possible replacement for NAVTEX, were referred to the next meeting. Proposals for generic performance standards for shipborne satellite navigation system receiver equipment were referred back to the correspondence group led by Germany. Proposals for the introduction of a VHF data exchange system (VDES) were referred to a correspondence group led by Japan.

There were no ship’s routeing proposals submitted to the meeting. A UK proposal for a new mandatory reporting system in the Pentland Firth, which was not agreed at the previous meeting, was agreed as a voluntary system. Associated protective measures within a particularly sensitive sea area in the North-Western Mediterranean Sea were prepared to protect cetaceans. The chair of the Experts Group on Ship’s Routeing, George Detweiller of the USA, announced that this would be his last meeting as he was retiring. He had chaired the group since NCSR4.

Upcoming Meetings Relating To Maritime Safety

The next meeting of NCSR is planned for 4 to 13 June 2024. A meeting of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 107) is planned for 31 May to 9 June 2023. A meeting of the Joint IMO/ITU Experts Group is planned for 9 to 13 October 2023. A meeting of the ICAO/IMO Joint Working Group is planned for 6 to 10 November 2023. The meeting proposed to invite the Committee to authorize the holding of annual meetings of the Joint IMO/ITU Experts Group and the ICAO/IMO Joint Working Group in future until advised otherwise.