ShipCrunch

Go to sea? Go to hell!

Whining about the paucity of new maritime recruits shows results: A headache and no medicine.

By Ryan Skinner (email)

The President of Travelers' Ocean Marine Division Richard DeSimone sounds the kind of alarm one might expect a marine insurance group to sound. I quote: If something isn't done about seafarer recruiting, and that quick, we in the insurance business are going to be neck deep in pooh, soon. OK, I rephrased a little.

He's got reason to be scared pantless. Marine insurers are walking along a tightrope as they try to remain commercially competitive (read: cheap, in a very transparent market) while the people with ultimate control over their fates (seafarers) are getting increasingly scarce. If I were liable for damages to a ship up to some hundreds of millions of dollars, I'd want the pick of the litter running the boat. Shipping's not attracting the pick of the litter.

Me, you and Mitropoulos

It's about time the IMO developed a voice that people could hear and understand, no?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Last year at Nor-Shipping, I watched and listened as a former CNN anchor, Todd Benjamin, politely but decisively made it clear that he thought IMO boss Efthimios Mitropoulos was simply irrelevant in the debate around climate and the environment. The sub-text to everyone in the audience: "You're cute, but there's really no point listening to you, is there?"

Was it a gratuitous challenge to authority? Big CNN-style sensationalism on a stage too small for it? And what does that Benjamin guy know about shipping anyway? Setting aside the whole question of how the IMO has addressed or not addressed shipping's impact on climate change, I am compelled to ask: Why are the IMO and Mitropoulos so soft-spoken?

It would seem the IMO recognizes the problem, and is keen to do something about it. A very good source tipped me off to this job announcement. He suggested that I had touched a nerve. (Truly, one has to blush; could a blogger like me ask for a better endorsement of the subversive power of his influence?) I don't believe it, but the IMO is clearly responding to a felt need to address its voiceless-ness online.

It's time Efthimios Mitropoulos started a blog. It's time IMO started to twitter. Heck, a quasi-public outfit like Sailors' Society does it. The Baltic Exchange. IMarEST. Even the EU. It's time the IMO renewed its web-site; I defy you to find a more impenetrable digital thicket than www.imo.org. It's the Obamamania government 2.0 era. Get with it.

Look at the US Coast Guard as an example with a similar role in the same industry. Outgoing USCG Commandant Thad Allen styled himself the iCommandant, pressing social media channels, blogging, twitter and the rest to his bemedalled breast. Thanks to Allen, the USCG's got a huge following, a human voice that casts far and web-empowered agencies like AMVER.

So I make this an appeal to the IMO called "Me, You and Mitropoulos". I single out the boss because he's got to take responsibility for the whole show, and its successes/failings. It's time for the IMO and Mitropoulos to enter conversations. It's time to gain a voice. If you're reading this and you have a voice on twitter, in a blog or elsewhere, use it. Ask the IMO to start conversing. Tell 'em to blog, to tweet, to speak up online.

Come on, IMO. Emerge from the technocratic fog and enter the social cloud.

Grounding Avoidance System: Smart Tech, Dumb News

An interesting little piece of tech news leaves big questions, answers are found.

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Few who read any maritime news will miss a recent piece of news from Drydocks WorldDubai: "Drydocks World-Dubai installs Advanced Grounding Avoidance System on BP Shipping vessel". Search the headline and you'll find 200 re-hashings of the same press release.

The story in <50 words: BP Shipping has developed an echo-sounder based system that can scan the water column one kilometer in front of a vessel, in order to catch shallows sooner and avoid groundings. A trial system is being installed now on a BP Shipping tanker at Drydocks World-Dubai.

The press release, issued by Drydocks World (probably via a Dubai-based PR agency), stresses the expertise of the yard in installing the system. For the fleet manager who is planning a dry-docking in order to install a unique piece of kit, the intended response is: "Wow. Perfect."

Everyone else is left with a few burning questions: Why would BP Shipping install such a thing? How does it work? Will it actually prevent groundings? None of the media outlets that purveyed Drydocks World's news sought to answer these questions. A little rooting around BP Shipping's web-site, however, turned up this March 2009 article (see pages 8-9) in their house magazine, which goes a long way to answering the questions.

No blame to Drydocks World here; they do their best to publicize a piece of news that can earn them business. The media that carried the news could spend ten minutes to dig up a more interesting story, but - with the swooning ad sales and down-sizings shaking the church of journalism - one shouldn't be surprised.

Only slightly related: Another press release, this one from ShipServ, struck me as compelling, if perhaps a little unsophisticated and self-promoting in a way that will quickly get chopped down in media where real editors really edit the releases.

Shipping debates that don't happen

By Ryan Skinner (email)

No shortage of opinions in shipping. Ask just about any one what he/she thinks about just about anything, and you'll hear it, often in a strident way. Sometimes these opinions gain a public forum - most often in the context of leaders disagreeing. Occasionally in the context of a convention.

What about the kinds of debates among ordinary people that we've come to know from countless web-sites and discussion fora? In this free and open space, opinions clash. Sometimes these devolve into a pointless exchange of insults; often, however, they are more constructive than that. Valuable thoughts and information come to the surface.

Is this not a vacuum maritime newspapers and magazines should be rushing into? A quick survey shows there's hardly a battle to develop the definitive online debate space.

Unglorious basterds

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Ship Management International brought last week the story of a sycophant.

In the wake of the 2007 oil spill off Korea's coast, it seemed as if investigators (no doubt at the behest of their political masters) fell over themselves to put blame on the officers of the Hebei Spirit. Better to blame outsiders than take the rap for a home-grown disaster.