The accident of Ro Ro Carrier Cougar

Ace in June 2006 was the reason for the

decision taken by the last 56
th
session of
the IMO Marine Environment Protection
Committee to develop guidelines for
training of seafarers in respect of ballast
water exchange at sea, which virtually
constitutes a new shipboard operation.

In June 2006, the abovementioned vessel
of 55.328 grt, loaded with approximately
5.000 vehicles, during the voyage from
Japan to Vancouver and while sailing
the north west Pacific went into a 80
deg. list to her port side.

The final destination of the vessel after
Vancouver was the U.S. west coast and
specifically the ports of Tacoma and
Hueneme which are located in an envi-
ronmentally, particularly sensitive area.

It was considered that the wrong ballast
water exchange carried out by the vessel
in a distance more than 200 n. miles
from the nearest coast altered the initial
loading condition and subsequently to
this extreme heel.

The Master and the 22 members of the
crew of the vessel were rescued while a
surveyor who had gone onboard lost his
life falling from a 25 meter-height.

The ship was towed to a safer area
where pumping of water that flooded
one of her 12 decks took place.

It is known that when ballast water ex-
change at sea takes place through the
sequential method (emptying and re-
filling a ballast tank) large quantities of
water are removed from the ship until
suction is lost and then added again.
The loading condition changes affect-
ing the stability of the ship, her struc-
tural strength, bridge visibility and
maneuverability.

Particular attention should be given to
considerable heeling moments result-
ing from ballast water exchange of
tanks with different capacities or
tanks located in the same side of the
ship.

It is advisable that each intermediate
stage is calculated and monitored by
means of the Loading Instrument of
the ship in relation to the permissible
limits of stability, bending moments
and shearing forces.

In case an asymmetrical exchange of
ballast tanks is performed heeling an-
gles must invariably not exceed 2.0
deg.

Guidelines for training on ballast wa-
ter exchange at sea will be drafted in
the context of the STCW and its Code
revision which is under development,
aiming at informing and familiarizing
Officers with the available ballast
Date: 22/ 1 / 2008
Issue 25
he
HELMEPA NAVIGAT R HELMEPA NAVIGAT R HELMEPA NAVIGAT R HELMEPA NAVIGAT R
Technical Bulletin
raining for ballast water
exchange operations at sea

1
he impact of climatic
change to the oceans

2
Maintenance of the Elec-
tronic Chart Display and
Information System - ECDIS

4




Issue Issue Issue Issue Page Page Page Page
raining for ballast water exchange operations at sea
Pg. Pg. Pg. Pg. 2 22 2 Issue 25 Issue 25 Issue 25 Issue 25
management methods (sequential, dilution and
flow through) covering among other the following:

the ballasting/deballasting system (pumps,
tanks, piping, operability of air pipes and
other openings),

the knowledge of the time span required to
carry out ballast water exchange by means
of any available method and of the impact
to stability, strength and other operations of
ships,

he impact of climatic change to the oceans
(cont. from pg. 1)
knowledge of sampling and record keeping.
At the end of last year, the Intergovernmental
Panel for the Climatic Change, widely known as
IPCC, published the 4
th
consecutive, integrated
report (Synthesis Report) assessing the scien-
tific, technical and socio economic information
related to the climatic change.

One of the most interesting areas of the report
is the impact of the climatic change to the
oceans, a summary of which is provided below:

During the period 1955 2003, the world average
temperature of the water column from surface
to 700 meters depth has increased by 0.1
o
C. In
the same period, the average temperature of
the layer between 700 3.000 meters is esti-
mated that it has increased by 0,037
o
C.

Due to the large heat capacity of sea water
(1000 times higher than that of the atmos-
phere), the oceans absorb approximately 90% of
the extra heat radiated down to earth by the
greenhouse gases.

The most important proof of the climatic change
is the increase of temperature of the intermedi-
ate and deep waters which are not directly af-
fected by changes occurring in the atmosphere.

In the same period, a large scale reduction of
the salinity of surface waters is recorded, par-
ticularly in high geographical latitudes and an
increase in the tropical and subtropical regions.
These trends are attributed to the inflow of major
amounts of fresh water in polar areas and the
change of the precipitation evaporation balance.

The salinity of surface as well as of deep waters
constitutes a parameter hardly altering; however
the increase of the oceans temperature is obvi-
ous.

Since 1961 to 2003, the average sea level rise was
1.8 mm annually. This rate has increased to 3.1
mm annually in the period 1993 2003. Measure-
ments taken from a network of 23 tidal level
gauges installed since the end of the 19th century
in various areas around the world demonstrate
that in the period 1900 2000 the average sea
level has risen by 18.5 cm.

It is known that the oceans play the role of a giant
heat pump carrying the surplus of heat produced
from solar radiation from low to high geographical
latitudes.

The contribution of seafarers onboard commercial
and postal ships of the 19
th
century to detect and
map major ocean currents such as the Gulf
stream, Kuroshio, etc. Changes of the temperature
of surface waters and the melting of icecaps in
Greenland and Canada seems to shift the circula-
tion in North Atlantic since the Gulf Stream con-
tinually reaches to lower geographical latitudes
without making milder the climate north.

Pg Pg Pg Pg. . . . 3 33 3 Issue 25 Issue 25 Issue 25 Issue 25
(cont. from pg. 2)
The proper maintenance of the Electronic Chart
Display and Information System ECDIS is impor-
tant for ensuring the safety of navigation.

ECDIS is used to meet the chart carriage require-
ments as set out in SOLAS Regulation V/19.2.1.4.
and comprises of hardware, software and data.

If ECDIS is not updated to the latest version
of the International Hydrographic Organiza-
tion (IHO) Standards that govern the trans-
fer and presentation of the charted infor-
mation used in ECDIS, it may not meet the
chart carriage requirements.

If ECDIS is not upgraded to the IHO Elec-
tronic Navigational Chart (ENC) Product
Specification with recent requirements on
Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas and Archi-
pelagic Sea Lanes, it may not meet the
chart carriage requirements.

If ECDIS is not upgraded to the latest version
of Product Specification or the S-52 Presen-
tation Library, the system may be unable to
correctly display the latest charted features
and appropriate alarms and indications may
fail to be activated.

If ECDIS is not updated to be fully compliant
with the S-63 Data Protection Standard may
fail to decrypt or to properly authenticate
some ENCs leading to failure to load or in-
stall.

A list of all current IHO standards can be found in
the ENC/ECDIS section of the IHO website
(www.iho.int).
Sea level rise. The black line shows the three year average and the red line the recent satellite
Maintenance of the Electronic Chart Display and Information System - ECDIS
MARITIME SECTOR
For further details on the topics of the Bulletin, you
may contact Stelios Volakis or Marina Papaioannou.