| IMO Sets Up Website for Kids |
The website includes a specially- commissioned animation showing how IMO works to protect the marine environment and the atmosphere.
By clicking on the colourful links, young people can learn more about IMO’s work. Topics include protecting the atmosphere, dealing with waste, clean oceans, invasive species, particularly sensitive sea areas and protecting marine life from noise pollution.
Maritime Safety Committee Meets this Week
IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) meets this week and will continue discussion of mandatory measures to protect offshore alternative energy technicians as they are transferred to their place of work by sea. The Committee will consider interim measures ahead of the adoption of a proposed new Code.
Other important items on the agenda include the adoption of amendments to SOLAS, including those related to subdivision and damage stability. New STCW training requirements for masters and deck officers on ships operating in Polar Waters and an extension of emergency training for personnel on passenger ships will also be up for adoption. The outcome of work by various technical Sub-Committees will also be considered by the Committee. The session was opened by IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim and is being chaired by Mr Brad Groves (Australia).
Disposal of Mining Waste at Sea
New work to assess the environmental impacts of wastes from mining operations which have been disposed into the marine environment is set to begin shortly. The work will be undertaken by a dedicated working group, established by the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP). GESAMP, which is a UN advisory body, set up the working group when it met for its 43rd annual session, in Nairobi, Kenya (November 14-18).
The move to assess the impacts of mining wastes at sea comes in response to a request from the Parties to the London Convention and Protocol, which regulate the dumping of wastes at sea.
