The International Institute of Marine Surveying has published a special one-shot, 100-page publication, entitled the IIMS 2021 Safety & Loss Prevention Briefings Compendium.
The broad aim of this compendium is to showcase incident and accident reports, and loss prevention measures/guidance that were issued in 2021, all easily accessible in one pdf document. Much of the content is distressing and covers carnage, destruction and sadly deaths. This publication is an essential reference resource for any marine surveyor’s online library as well as those whose work touches the surveying profession and for the wider maritime world.
Introductions by Yves Vandenborn, Director of Loss Prevention at Standard P&I Club and Geoff Waddington, IIMS President, add informative and valuable context to the publication.
Additional content has been provided from IMCA Safety Flashes with further extracts taken from the MAIB 2021 Safety Digests.
In an extract from the IIMS CEO’s introduction, Mike Schwarz says,
“I have been doing this job for eight years and I remain as horrified today as I did when I first started at the sheer volume of maritime disasters that drop into my inbox each and every day.
“The stark reality is that someone will die in a marine-associated accident somewhere in the world today, tomorrow, and the day after that.
“I accept that the sea is a dangerous environment in which to operate and play; furthermore, I understand that there are inherent risks associated with maritime activities, but it remains a sadness to see such loss of life and damage to valuable assets.
“And the most concerning aspect of it all is that many of the incidents you will read about should never have happened or should have been prevented.
“Human error, more often than not, is the primary cause due to incompetency, inadequate training, poor risk assessment, bad maintenance or simply a lack of common sense.”