The Act amends Commonwealth law and creates new offences for oil pollution from ships, widens the scope of liability  and significantly increases penalties for pollution offences.

There must be an effort to learn from the tragedy, and while the investigation will be ongoing for some time, here is my prediction of six ways in which cruising will be safer, going forward, as a result of Costa Concordia

IMPA announces preliminary information on the 2012 Congress on London and the launch of its website here

IMPA 2012 website  http://www.impa2012.com/

On the 30 November 2011. the IMO approved changes to the Pilot Transfer Arrangements to improve the safe working conditions for pilots. AMPI would like to thank Captain Alex Amos for his work in progressing these changes and also AMSA for facilitating his attendance at the IMO meeeting that approved these changes.  Alex's trip to London was sponsored by AMPI.

This document outlines the features of the proposed Maritime Safety National Law Act 2011  The National Law is being developed to give legal effect to the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) decision that there be one law (a Commonwealth Act) regulating the safety of commercial vessel operations, and one national regulator (the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), for commercial vessel safety in Australia and. AMSA is presently liaising with the Department of Infrastructure and Transport and all Australian jurisdictions to draft the National Law.

The newsletter has been initiated as a mechanism to advise developments to VTS in Australia and internationally.

The ocean is an integral part of our planet, and is an absolutely essential component of human lives,  livelihood and the environment that sustains us.

This article by Fred W. Pot of Principal of Marine Management Consulting provides a clear explanation of the E-Nav proposal and the current situation.

Around the world a number of attempts at introducing competition among pilotage services have been
trialled, some of which have been identified as contributing to maritime accidents. (page 276)

International shipping is responsible for around 3 per cent of global green house gas emissions, equivalent to those of Germany. These emissions are projected to increase by 150–250 per cent by 2050,  Tough action  will be required to make a major step towards closing the emissions gap.

Are airline pilots forgetting how to fly? As planes become ever more reliant on automation to navigate crowded skies, safety officials worry there will be more deadly accidents traced to pilots who have lost their hands-on instincts in the air.  Hundreds of people have died over the past five years in "loss of control" accidents in which planes stalled during flight or got into unusual positions that pilots could not correct.

The Federal government has confirmed that a carbon price will be imposed on the Australian transport sector, extending to domestic aviation, domestic shipping, rail and heavy road transport.

Bahamas discusses the integration of pilots into the bridge team at MSC 2011

Critical infrastructure is increasingly dependent on positioning, navigation, and timing services, our society is vulnerable to disruptions that can be caused by space weather that can influence space-borne and ground-based technological systems such as GPS

The introduction of the new Work, Health & Safety Act in all states will require a positive demonstration of safety due diligence. This R2A booklet provides information on the  the change from a hazard-based approach to a precaution-based analysis consistent with common law.

Learning from accidents and their causes can be an effective way of developing a safety culture.

A first comprehensive look at the commercially available tools that allow ship-owners to improve  fuel efficiency as an emissions saving system..

Signals from GPS satellites now help you to call your mother, power your home, and even land your plane – but  .....