This safety alert serves as a reminder to vessel Owners / Operators, Port Captains / Engineers, crewmembers, and marine inspection personnel of the importance of properly maintaining and repairing vessel electrical systems including those located in inaccessible or confined areas. In this casualty, a young mariner employed onboard a Great Lakes bulk carrier was electrocuted while working in a dark and confined cargo tunnel beneath the ship's cargo holds. Another crewmember discovered the fallen mariner, went to his aid and received an electric shock sustaining a serious injury.

Port state control inspectors of member states of the Paris MOU and the Tokyo MOU carried out a Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on lifeboat launching arrangements between September 1 and November 30, 2009.

The 27 member authorities of the Paris MoU carried out 5,749 inspections. During each inspection vital points of SOLAS Chapter III, ISM and the LSA Code requirements were verified.

Dutch Port State Control issued the following warning

Vessels have to change over to marine fuels with a sulpher content not exceeding 0,1% by mass as soon as possible after arrival at berth.
 
The regulation with regards to Maximum sulphur content of marine fuels used by ships at berth in Community ports according 2005/33/EC:

This Classification News replaces No. 24/2009, originally issued on August 14, 2009. It has been updated to clarify the information relating to review of boilers, burners and fuel oil systems.

Infomarine On-Line Technical Library

File	Description	File size
Maintaining boiler safety and availability when using low-sulphur fuels.pdf	As a result of various environmental regulations, main and auxiliary boilers will be required to change from standard heavy fuel oil (HFO), for which many of them were specifically designed, to operate on low-sulphur fuel oils.	130 Kb

Fishing vessel safety staff in the Coast Guard’s Seventh District has received at least three reports in the past few months regarding unapproved replacements of 406 EPIRB batteries by servicing companies having no association with the EPIRB manufacturer.

Sub: SAFETY ALERT and RECALL
Ref: Service Information Bulletin No. SIB-08144

IF YOU ARE THE OWNER OF A MARINE LIFE RAFT MANUFACTURED BY SWITLIK PARACHUTE COMPANY,
IT MAY HAVE A POTENTIAL PROBLEM WITH THE INFLATION SYSTEM.

THIS IS NOT OBVIOUS AND COULD CAUSE FALSE RELIANCE ON A LIFE RAFT  THAT, IF NEEDED, MAY NOT INFLATE AND FUNCTION AS A LIFE SAVING DEVICE. 

The number of fake units sold and currently onboard vessels is unknown and could be substantial.
The fake reproduction will not fit over an individual’s head and the automatic air release valve will not open. A crisis situation requiring the use of an EEBD will be severely compounded, potentially leading to death, should a crewmember inadvertently rely on a fake reproduction.

U.S. Coast Guard District Eight recognized this problem with John Deere manufactured engines and distributed enforcement guidance to their field units on November 22, 2005. Since then, John Deere has engineered retrofit packages for approximately 400 units and is currently seeking approval from the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Center (MSC). Because of widespread use of electronically controlled engines, we suspect there may be other equipment currently in use that similarly is not designed or approved for hazardous locations.

 With effect from November 1, 2009, all ships, regardless of flag, will be required to exchange, treat or deliver to a shore reception facility all ballast water taken up outside the Regional Organisation for the Protection of the Marine Environment (ROPME) Sea Area*. This comprises the states of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Infomarine On-Line Technical Library

File	Description	File size
Arabian Gulf area ballast water management regulations.pdf	With effect from November 1, 2009, all ships, regardless of flag, will be required to exchange, treat or deliver to a shore reception facility all ballast water taken up outside the Regional Organisation for the Protection of the Marine Environment.	123 Kb

The U.S. Coast Guard is pleased to announce the availability of type-approved Automatic Identification System (AIS) Class B devices. These lower cost AIS devices are interoperable with AIS Class A devices and make use of expanded AIS messaging capabilities. Unfortunately, not all existing Class A devices are able to take full advantage of these new messaging capabilities.

This Safety Alert serves to inform the maritime industry that energy saving Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) or lighting, sometimes known as radio frequency (RF) lighting devices may interfere with certain communications equipment. CFLs employ a RF lighting device to excite a gas inside a bulb in
order to produce light.